7 Cambodian people die in well due to lack of oxygen: police

 

PHNOM PENH (Xinhua) -- Seven people died in an old and dried concrete well in Cambodia's northwestern Siem Reap province Saturday evening due to a lack of oxygen, a local police officer said.

The incident occurred in Banteay Srei district when a man accidentally dropped 3,000 riel (0.75 U.S. dollars) into the well and he got down to the well's bottom to take the money back and lapsed into a coma in the well, reported the website of Koh Santepheap Daily, a leader newspaper in the country, quoting Captain Muy Norn, acting police chief of Banteay Srei district.

"When relatives and villagers saw the man collapsed at the well 's bottom, they subsequently got into the well to help him and they all also got fainted and died in the well," he said.

"In total, seven people including two women died in the well," he said. "We concluded that they all died of a lack of oxygen in the old and unused well."

According to experts, humans lapse into a coma and die within 40 seconds if they are in an atmosphere that has an oxygen level of 4 to 6 percent.