Two Mumbai watchmen drown in flooded lift

Mumbai, Sep 23 (IANS) In a shocking incident, two security guards trapped in a flooded lift in a Mumbai building drowned while struggling to open its door, a police official said here on Wednesday.

The security guards had gone to the waterlogged basement of Nathani Residency building in Agripada to restore water supply to the complex around 8 a.m. but were caught in the rising water level.

In a bid to escape, they got into the building lift and closed its door, but the flooded lift failed to start and even the door failed to reopen, said Agripada Police Station Senior Police Inspector Savlaram Agavane.

They pressed the alarm, after which some building residents rushed down to save them, but could not reach them due to increased water-logging, Agavane said.

By the time the fire brigade personnel reached the spot and managed to cut the lift roof, the two watchmen had died. They were identified as Jamir Ahmed Sohanan, 32, and Shehzad S Memon, the latter living in the nearby Dongri area.

Mumbai and the entire Konkan district comprising Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri, Raigad, Thane and Palghar have been inundated by a record downpour since September 22-23 night, paralysing normal life.

–IANS

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