Ludhiana: Toxic gas from a suspected cocktail of sewage and illegally dumped industrial effluents killed 11 people, 10 of them from three migrant families of Bihar and UP, in a horrific tragedy outside a milk booth in the Giaspura neighbourhood of Punjab's Ludhiana on Sunday.
Two cops were among four others knocked unconscious as they responded to the sight of bodies either sprawled on the street or struggling to breathe, starting with a man who collapsed and turned blue, eyewitnesses said. Air-quality sensors used by the NDRF detected high levels of hydrogen sulphide gas, which officials suspect caused the deaths.
“The milk shop opens early and the first customers are usually shopkeepers. At first, one person fell on the road like he had been struck by someone or something. One by one, anyone who went near him met the same fate. We initially thought it was an electric shock," Mehanga Ram, a resident of the area, said. “It was terrible. The victims may have perished within seconds. Nobody could help them. ” By the time NDRF and fire brigade teams arrived to cordon off the area, all but four of the people lying on the road were dead.
A preliminary probe identified the source of the poison gas as a sewer into which an “organised gang” allegedly discharges effluents collected from factories. Ludhiana police commissioner Mandeep Singh Sidhu pinned the blame on “irresponsible people who poured effluents down a manhole somewhere near”.
“The police have scanned footage from CCTVs near the site where the deaths occurred, but haven’t found anything suspicious yet. We are extending the search to nearby locations with cameras to identify the culprits,” he said.
One of those hospitalized told the police that he was familiar with the stench of gas emanating from sewage in that locality, especially during the monsoon months.