Three families lose 10 members in Gyaspura gas tragedy in Ludhiana
In a tragic incident, 11 people were killed and four injured as they inhaled a toxic gas in Ludhiana’s Giaspura neighbourhood on Sunday morning. Ten of those killed belong to three families from Bihar, who had been living in Punjab for over two-three decades, and one person is yet to be identified.
At around 7 am, people found bodies lying on the road near a milk booth in the area. “This milk shop opens early in the morning as nearby shopkeepers go there to purchase milk. At first, one person fell down on the road and gradually turned blue. Those who came to his help also fell there. We thought it was some electric shock,” a local, Mehanga Ram, told TOI. “It was a terrible scene as the bodies were lying here and there and nobody could help them as they died in mere seconds,” he added.
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Two PCR cops, who reached the spot first, faced breathing problems and one of them fell unconscious as he was working with just a handkerchief tied on his lower face and had to be rushed for treatment to hospital.
NDRF and fire brigade teams also rushed to the spot where the bodies were found and cordoned off the area. Soon, the police force, district administration, Ludhiana municipal corporation and Punjab Pollution Control Board officials reached the spot.
The police have registered an FIR and initiated a probe into an ‘organised gang’ that picks effluent from factories and illegally discharges it into the sewerage late at night. Ludhiana police commissioner Mandeep Singh Sidhu blamed “irresponsible persons who poured their chemicals in the MC sewer manhole” for the tragedy.
“The police have scanned CCTVs installed near the spot from where the poisonous gas leaked, however nothing suspicious is captured there. More CCTVs installed at different locations of the area are being scanned now to find the culprits,” the police commissioner said.
One of the victims admitted to the hospital told the police that every rainy season an obnoxious smell emits from the sewerage in this locality, Sidhu said.
“For the past few years, a mafia has emerged to collect chemical waste from factories and illegally discharge it in the sewerage mostly on the weekends,” an official said.
