KARACHI: Five men, including a sanitation worker and two brothers, died after inhaling toxic gases in an underground water tank in Ibrahim Hyderi on Tuesday.

Area SHO Ghaux Bux Awan told Dawn that a sanitation worker, identified as Sunil, entered the underground water tank of the house of Abdul Latif for cleaning. He was also accompanied by a son of the house owner.

He said both of them became unconscious due to the presence of toxic gases inside the tank. Latif’s another son and two neighbours tried to rescue them and entered the tank but they also became unconscious.

Malir SP Mansoor Gulzar Bozdar said that they were taken to a hospital, where doctors pronounced them dead.

The deceased were identified as Sunil, 28, Shaban Latif, 22, his brother Kamran Latif, 23, Naveed Sakhi Mohammed, 35, and Shahzad Ramzan, 28.

The SHO said Latif was a policeman and his two sons also died in the incident. He said they did not live in the house as Latif rented it out.

Police surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed told Dawn that they received bodies of five young men at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medico-legal formalities.

She said Ramzan’s family had refused a post-mortem examination of the body.

No case had been registered as it was an accident, the SHO added.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2025