Bengaluru: Two manual scavengers who were cleaning a 15-foot-deep clogged manhole suffocated to death on Kasbagh Road in Doddaballapura on Sunday, April 3. Two locals who rushed to rescue the labourers too fell into the manhole and died.

Jagannath alias Jagan, 28, hailing from Andhra Pradesh, and Muniswamy Goundar, 34, from Tamil Nadu are the deceased labourers. The two locals are identified as Madhu, 21 and Muniraju, 23.

The incident took place on Sunday afternoon, when Jagan and Goundar, who were checking manholes across the city, found a clogged one at Srinagar. Jagan stepped in and soon started struggling for breath. Goundar jumped in to pull him out, but he too started suffocating.

The two workers started screaming for help. Muniraju and Madhu who saw the workers, rushed to rescue the duo but lost balance and fell into the manhole. All the four were choked to death.

The grieving family members, relatives and locals lashed out at the municipal council of Doddaballapura for negligence, which sanctioned and outsourced the cleaning work.

Officials rushed to the spot and retrieved the bodies. “The bodies were shifted to a government hospital for autopsy. We have sought information from the company that the labourers were working for, and it is yet to reach us,” a police official said.

“We have booked a case under Section 304A for causing death due to negligence and also under sections of an anti-scavenging act passed recently. The cases will be registered against the companies involved,” the police said.