Six dead as group tries to rescue worker from sewer well

Five Good Samaritans died in an Argentine village after inhaling toxic gases as they tried to rescue a worker in trouble in a sewer well, to no avail, municipal officials said Saturday.

The five entered the sewer system Friday in the town of Blaquier, Buenos Aires Province, to help a pump technician, who died despite their efforts, according to a statement from the  Florentino Ameghino municipality, to which Blaquier belongs.

The deceased died of "mechanical asphyxia due to bronchial asphyxiation" of gases at the site,” it added.

Two firefighters who extracted the bodies of the six victims were hospitalised after inhaling the same gases. They remain under observation.

Local press reports said the deceased were between 27 and 60 years old, and included a father and his son and at least two volunteer firefighters who had come to the aid of their neighbours.

Blaquier has only a few hundred inhabitants.

"This is a small town and when something happens we all want to come to the rescue," said Nahuel Mittelbach, the dismayed mayor of Florentino Ameghino, in comments reported by the La Nación newspaper.

The location of the tragedy is to "a totally fenced-off site, a recently inaugurated construction site" to which "only people who have to carry out work have access,” the mayor added.

“A pump had to be repaired," Mittelbach explained. "The well is part of the local sewage system.”

– TIMES/AFP