Motihari: Six persons, four of them members of the same family, died of suffocation after inhaling poisonous gases inside a septic tank in East Champaran district on Thursday morning.

According to Sikarana sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Alok Kumar Singh, the incident occurred at Jeetpur village in Jitna police station of East Champaran, about 225km northwest of Patna.

"Around 7am, Mohan Mahato entered an under-construction septic tank. When he did not come out, five others went inside the tank but they too died," said the SDPO.

Those dead have been identified as Bachani Devi and her husband Dinesh Mahato, their two sons Mohan Mahato and Basant Kumar, and two other residents, Sachin Mahto and Saroj Mukhiya.

Eyewitnesses said the scene in the village turned melancholic as one after other the bodies were retrieved from the tank and rushed to a primary health centre (PHC) where they were declared brought dead. "Not to be satisfied with this, the residents wanted to take the bodies to Motihari. But neither ambulance nor support from any quarters was available. This irked the residents and some of them damaged property belonging to the primary health centre," said Rakesh Kumar, reporter with a vernacular daily.

"Nobody could make out that some poisonous gases claimed the lives of those stepping inside till the last man, Basant Kumar, entered," sources quoted a resident as saying. According to residents, Basant was alive while the others had died when they were retrieved. But he died as no medical help could be made available to him immediately after reaching the PHC at Chauradano.

Irked by the absence of doctors at the PHC, the residents blocked Motihari-Chauradano road for hours, placing the bodies on the stretch. They raised slogans against the doctors and the district administration. Around 1pm, a howl of protest rang out when sub-divisional officials, namely subdivisional police officer Alok Kumar Singh, accompanied by block development officer and sub-divisional officer, reached the spot and tried to pacify them.

But the protesters remained resolute in their demand for compensation for family members of those killed. Normalcy could be restored only around 3pm after officials assured them compensation.

At the time of filing this report the bodies had been sent for post-mortem.