Chennai: Less than a fortnight after three women fell to their death while fetching water from a drying well in Kanchipuram, another such incident occured where one died while two are presntly critical.
Identified as Jeeva, 22, Kannan, 48, and Venkatesh, 38, the three men were hired by Palani, a landlord in Madhuranthakam to dig up a well which had dried up. The 40-feet-well was the only source of water for them, and so, around 1 pm, the men began to dig.
The three men were standing on a flimsy cement barricade which gave in to the weight of the three men causing them to slip in along with all the debris. The three men fell into the well, with the cement and mud falling on them, said police sources.
The alarmed bystanders called the Madhuranthakam fire station who rushed to the spot. The three men were rescued alive from the well and rushed to the Maduranthakam government hospital. Jeeva however, succumbed to injuries and died on the spot while the other two are undergoing medical treatment. The Madhuranthakam police have registered a case and are investigating the matter.
In a similar incident, three women were killed and five injured in a freak accident when a slab fell into a well in Kancheepuram district in September. The women had climbed on to a cement barricade to fetch water.
