Five ragpickers drown in drain at Delhi's Chhawla

Five ragpickers, including three minor boys, drowned in a drain in South West Delhi's Chhawla on Saturday morning.

"The three children, Sahidul (10) Sabikul (9) and Lalsun (12) were ragpickers and had gone inside a drain in Chhawla area to pick some garbage, but drowned inside," police said.

The incident took place around 11.15 am on Saturday in Shyam Kunj Goyala village near Chhawla.

Police added that on seeing the kids drowning, two men, Hassidull (26) and Afsae Ali (30), jumped into the drain to rescue the boys. They efforts, however, failed and they too drowned. The men were also ragpickers.

Soon, a crowd gathered at the spot and some locals, with the help of the police, fished out the victims from the drain. They were taken to the hospital where doctors declared them brought dead. All five victims were residents of Assam.

It is believed that poisonous gases emanating from the drain caused the immediate death of the five victims. The actual cause of death would be ascertained only after the post-mortem.

"They were taken to Rao Tula Ram Memorial Hospital in Jaffarpur," Deputy Commissioner of Police Surender Kumar said.

The fire department said one fire tender was rushed to the spot after they received the call but could not save the victims.