Jammu: Two labourers died of asphyxiation during digging of a borewell in Samba district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said on Sunday.
Another labourer was rescued in a critical condition by a joint team of police and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), which rushed to Chak Manga village after getting information about the incident, a police official said.
He said a labourer went down into the borewell to retrieve some part of a digging machine which accidentally fell into it during digging Saturday evening but fell unconscious.
Two others lowered into the borewell one after another for help but they also fell unconscious, the official said, adding a distress call was made and the rescuers rushed to the spot and pulled out the three labourers.
While two of them Ashiq Ali and Goutam Kumar, both aged around 33 years, died, the condition of Ravi Kumar was stated to be “critical”, the official said.