Two persons died inside a well apparently after inhaling some poisonous gas in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon district, police said on Tuesday.
The incident occurred on Monday at a farm in Gadaghat village after its owner Ravindra Nath Thakur (35) entered the 35-feet-deep well to remove a dead snake from water, said Khairagarh Station House Officer (SHO) Pradip Sori.
"As Thakur fell unconscious inside the well, a villager Dwarika Baya (30) went down to check on him, but he too fell unconscious," he said.
After locals informed police about the incident, a rescue operation was launched.
Thakur and Baya were pulled out dead from the well.
"Prima facie it seems they died after inhaling some poisonous gas. The exact cause of their death will be known after receiving postmortem report," Sori said, adding that samples of water from the well have been sent for testing.
A case has been registered, he added.