Representative image of a sludge tank.
Credit: PTI Photo
Bhuj: In yet another tragic incident, five workers were killed due to asphyxiation while cleaning a sludge tank at an agrotech company in Kutch district. The victims, who were in their 30s, were migrant workers.
Police said that the incident occurred at around 12:30 AM on Wednesday while the workers were cleaning the effluent treatment plant of Emami Agrotech, a firm which deals in the production of edible oil and biodiesel.
A police official with Kandla Marine Police station, where the incident has been registered as a case of accidental death, said that the deceased were Sidharth Tiwari, Ajmat Khan, Ashish Gupta, Ashish Kumar and Sanjay Thakur.
“When a worker entered a tank to remove sludge, he fell unconscious. Two other workers rushed inside the tank to rescue him, but they also fainted. Two more followed suit, and all five died,” said Kutch (East) Superintendent of Police Sagar Bagmar.
A case of accidental death has been registered at Kandla police station and a probe is underway, he said.
Earlier on October 12, nine workers were killed in Mehsana after soil caved in on them in an under construction factory. According to data released by the state government earlier this year in the Assembly, a total of 714 workers have died in industrial accidents since 2021.
(With PTI inputs)