A 55-year-old priest of a local temple today suffocated to death after he went down a 50-feet dry well to rescue a stray dog which had fallen into it in Loni area here, police said.
Seeing the priest, Subedar, fall unconscious inside the well, another temple priest also went down by rope, and he also fell unconscious due to suffocation, police said.
Both the priests were pulled out from the well with the help of fire brigade and rushed to hospital where Subedar was declared brought dead, while the other priest, Bheem (40), was stated to be out of danger.
Giving details of the incident, SHO of Loni police station, Gorakhnath said a stray dog fell into the 50-feet well.
"In order to pull out the dog, Subedar climbed down with the help of rope... He suddenly fell unconscious. Seeing this, his junior Bheem decided to rescue him by going inside the well. Bheem also lost consciousness due to suffocation," he said.
Locals informed the police about the incident, and they called fire brigade.
"Fire brigade employees initially sprinkled water inside the well to 'kill' suffocation and later the two, who were found unconscious, were pulled out from the well," the SHO said.
