Hyderabad, Aug. 14 (PTI): Four people including three sanitary workers were found dead in a manhole here yesterday, apparently killed by toxic gases, prompting a call to provide such employees with safety equipment.

An employee of an emergency ambulance service who tried to rescue them too fell ill after inhaling poisonous gas, police inspector R. Kalinga Rao said.

Union labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya said his ministry would soon issue circulars to the state governments on the need to provide sewage workers with proper training and safety equipment like oximeters. An oximeter, attached to the fingertip, monitors the amount of oxygen carried in the body.#

"The three workers were cleaning the manhole. As they failed to come out, a local resident named Srinivas climbed down to rescue them. He never came out, either," inspector Rao said.

All four bodies have been sent for post-mortem. The ambulance service employee is being treated in hospital. The police are yet to register a case.

"Workers entering manholes are not given proper training, resulting in such mishaps," Dattatreya said.#

I-Day tragedy

A woman teacher was electrocuted and four students suffered minor burns today when they came in contact with a high-tension wire at their primary school in Telangana while removing an iron flagpole for tomorrow's Independence Day celebrations.

The four children are in hospital and are said to be stable. The accident occurred around 11am on the grounds of the Medikonda primary school in Ranga Reddy district, close to Hyderabad.

Police said that K. Prabhavati, 40, and some of her pupils were removing the flagpole after fixing it when it came in contact with the high-tension wire above.

"The teacher was electrocuted while four students suffered minor burns. Ahead of the Independence Day celebrations, they were checking, fixing and removing the flag pole," an inspector said.