Owner's Son, Worker Die Of Suffocation In Shop's Basement: Delhi Police

Two men died of suffocation in the basement of a shop in east Delhi's Gandhi Nagar area on Sunday, police said.

They said an incident was reported to them at 12.07 pm about two men getting trapped in a shop basement.

The shop, RK Trading company, is located on main road in Kailash Nagar area and deals in assembling of cycle rickshaws meant for carrying goods.

When police reached the shop, it met Abrar, one of the workers there.

According to Abrar, he, along with Vaibhav Khaturia, the son of the owner, and another worker, had reached the shop around 10.30 am.

They started their work and needed some wooden planks for assembling. So Abrar went to fetch rims, said a senior police officer.

While he was gone, the owner's 22-year-old son, and a 40-year-old Zakir went down in the basement of the shop and slipped on the makeshift stairs, made with loose planks, the officer said.

When Abrar came back after 5 minutes, he saw the two men stuck inside in an unconscious state, police said.

He called the police immediately and shouted for help.

Both men were taken out with the help of locals and police and were rushed to a hospital, but couldn't survive, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara) R Sathiyasundram said.

When it was inspected, the basement was found to be very narrow and suffocating with a strong smell of chemical, police said.

Later it was conjectured that basement may have been sprayed with chloropyrifos, a termite resistance chemical, police said.