A manual worker has died of asphyxiation while cleaning up a well at Gitanagar in eastern Chitwan on Thursday.

According to the police, Ram Kumar Rana, 36, was cleaning up a well located within the residence of one Som Bahadur Loko at Naya Basti of Bharatpur Metropolitan City–23 when he died from suffocation.

Rana was cleaning up a 40–feet deep well and died due to lack of oxygen, reported RSS quoting Chitwan District Police Office SP Deepak Thapa. Rana climbed down the well at 9:40 am and became unresponsive within moments.

As per the report, a Nepal Army squad could not climb down below 25 feet due to the severity of the oxygen level after which a disaster relief squad from the Armed Police Force (APF) was called in for help.

The deceased’s body was retrieved nine hours later at 7 pm and the body has been kept at the Bharatpur hospital for an autopsy.