Midnapore: Four members of a family, including a woman, died after getting trapped inside a septic tank at Badshahpur in West Midnapore’s Mohanpur on Tuesday afternoon. The deceased were identified as Nazira Bibi (38), her son Sheikh Rabiul (25), nephew Sheikh Soeb (27), and brother Badir Mallik (45).Locals said Mallik entered the tank first to clean it and collapsed. When the other three climbed in one after another to rescue him, they were overcome by fumes and died. A neighbour who tried to pull them out also fell ill and is undergoing treatment at Bagda Rural Hospital.Police recovered the bodies and sent them to Kharagpur Sub-Divisional Hospital for post-mortem. Officers suspect asphyxiation and are probing whether toxic gas or lack of oxygen inside the tank caused the deaths.
