Samastipur, Aug. 24: In a bid to save lives of each other, three persons drowned in a well today. The victims included a woman.

The incident occurred at Brahman Tola of Lagunia Raghukanth village of Muffassil police station in the district this morning.

Sources attributed the deaths to the presence of excessive carbon dioxide inside the well, which subsequently choked the victims.

Saraswati Devi, 40, went to the well to fetch water and toppled after losing balance.

After Saraswati fell into the well, another family member, Dinesh Chaudhary, 30, went to save her and climbed down the well but he too failed to climb up.

Eventually, another member of the family, Uday Chaudhary, 45, also went in to make a final effort but failed to climb up the well.

Soon after the news spread that three persons of the same family had died, villagers assembled near the well.

Sources told The Telegraph when the villagers found out that the well had only 3ft water they started pondering over the reason behind the three deaths.

Sources added that the villagers sunk a lamp inside the well to find out if there was enough oxygen inside.

However, just 10ft inside the well, the lamp blew out and it was confirmed that the well either had excessive carbon dioxide or lack of oxygen.

Deputy superintendent of police of Sadar sub-division Rajiv Ranjan said: “The bodies have been sent for post-mortem to Samastipur and a case of unnatural death has been registered.”

Since, three persons of the same family died because of “suffocation” inside the well, the real cause of death could be declared only after the post-mortem report, the police said.

He added that the pol- ice are not responsible to guard wells.

Sources said the MLA of Samastipur, Akhtrul Islam Shahin, reached the spot soon after the incident occurred and expressed his grief on the death of the three persons. He also assured the bereaved family of compensation.

Sources said the district administration had directed officials to burn dead leaves inside the well so that any amount of carbon dioxide, if present inside the well, could be reduced.

Sources also said that to avert such incidents, a chaukidar has been deputed and the villagers have been asked not to use the well anymore.