The Enugu State Police Command has said that eight persons have been confirmed dead in an underground water safety tank.
This was contained in a statement issued by the Command’s Public Relations Officer, Ebere Amaraizu on Tuesday, a copy of which was made available to The PUNCH reporter through email.
Amaraizu, a Superintendent Police (SP) said the incident occurred at a building site located at Igogoro in Igboeze North Local Government Area of the state on Monday, July 22, 2019.
According to him “A yet-to-be-identified worker in the site had on that fateful day gone to evacuate water from the said tank but in the process got trapped inside it.
“After waiting for the victim to come out but didn’t, other victims started going into the said tank to offer help but were also trapped inside and became unconscious”.
Amaraizu said that the victims were later “recovered by other sympathizers and police operatives who raced to the scene and rushed them to General Hospital Ogurute where the doctor on duty confirmed them dead.”
Amaraizu said that the State Police Commissioner Suleiman Balarabe has expressed shock at the incident which he had described as unfortunate.
The PPRO added that the Police Commissioner had directed for a full- scale investigation into the incident to unravel the circumstances that led to the unfortunate incident.
Meanwhile, the bodies have been deposited at the Ogurute General Hospital’s mortuary, Amaraizu has said.