TIRUCHY: Two workers died of asphyxiation while cleaning a septic tank of a house at Vadugapatti village near Kallakudi in Tiruchy on Wednesday.

M Ganesan (25), a resident from Kumbakonam, and Mukesh Kumar (26) from Bihar, were cleaning the septic tank of a house belonging to S Devanathan at Annai Nagar in Vadugarpettai on Wednesday evening.

When he got down into the 12-feet deep tank and started clearing the waste, Mukesh fell down unconscious. Seeing him falling, Ganesh climbed down into the tank to rescue him but he too fell down unconscious.

Finding both the workers falling down and failing to respond, Devanathan alerted the Kallakudi police. Soon, police and fire and rescue services personnel rushed to the spot and attempted to rescue the duo.

But by then they had already died. Later, the bodies were retrieved and were sent to Lalgudi GH for post-mortem examination. A case was registered and investigations are on.