Noxious gas kills five workers in fish tank

Mangaluru: Five labourers were killed and a few others have been hospitalised after inhaling noxious gas at a fish processing unit at the Mangalore Special Economic Zone near Bajpe, about 19 kilometres from here in the late evening on Sunday.

All the five who died in the freak incident were in the 19-25 age group and were stated to be from West Bengal. They were identified as Md Sameevullah Islam (18), Nizamuddin Alice (19), Ummar Farooq (26), Mirajul Islam (18) and Sharafat Ali (18). At the time of the incident, there were 10 regular employees and 15 to 20 contract employees. Since all of them were on Ramzan fasting the gas acted quickly on them.

Samimullah fell unconscious while he was cleaning a 20-foot deep tank of fish waste. Aa technician, Umar Farooq, climbed down into the tank to rescue Samimullah, but he also collapsed. The bottom of the tank was filled with fish waste that had been rotting there for a long time. But soon eight other labourers jumped in and tried to save both of them but all of them got sick and could not come out.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Hariram Shankar and Commissioner of Police Mangalore city N Sasikumar have taken up investigation into the incident.