CHENNAI: A 25-year-old man, a contract worker with the Avadi Municipal Corporation, died due to asphyxiation while clearing a block in an underground sewer in Saraswathi Nagar near Avadi on Sunday.

The deceased was identified as Gopinath of Arundathipuram near Avadi. Police said that Gopinath is survived by his wife and a two-year-old child.

On Sunday, Gopinath along with three other contract workers were engaged to clear blocks in the underground sewer line on Kurinji Street, Saraswathi Nagar when the incident happened.

Police sources said that the workers went to the spot with the jet rodding machine which is used to clear sewers of blocks by spraying water at high pressure and speed. Preliminary investigations revealed that Gopinath was setting up the pipe into the drain when he swooned and fell inside.

Other workers who were at the spot saw this and immediately alerted the authorities after which personnel from Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Services (TNFRS) rushed to the scene and secured Gopinath from the drain. He was rushed to a hospital where he was declared as brought dead.

Avadi police secured Gopinath's body and sent it to Government Kilpauk Medical College Hospital for postmortem examination.

Senior officials from Avadi Corporation inspected the scene and conducted inquiries.

In May last year, in Avadi city police limits, two sanitation workers with Minjur town panchayat engaged by a private school there to clean the sewer tank in their premises died of suspected asphyxiation.