The three died during maintenance work on a water tank at the facility located in Hosur, Tamil Nadu state, said the source, who had direct knowledge of the matter. The New Indian Express newspaper reported that the deaths happened on Monday. Tata Electronics did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
“The safety and dignity of every worker must remain paramount. This tragic incident will be thoroughly investigated, and appropriate action will be taken based on the findings,” Tamil Nadu’s Industries Minister Virudhai Magal Keerthana said in a post on X.
Three contract workers have died after apparently inhaling toxic gas while cleaning a wastewater treatment tank at a factory supplying components for Apple’s iPhones in southern India.
The workers, aged between 25-32, collapsed while carrying out maintenance work at Tata Electronics' Marigold facility in Vanniyapuram, in Krishnagiri district in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, on Monday evening, according to the New Indian Express.
The incident occurred at about 5.10pm while a team was cleaning a nano-filtration feed tank, which receives wastewater from another part of the factory. According to Krishnagiri district collector C Dinesh Kumar, one of the men looked inside the tank to inspect it, but is suspected of fainting after inhaling gas.
The second and third workers collapsed one after the other, as they went in to check on their teammates.A fourth worker who witnessed what happened raised the alarm.