MEERUT, Aug. 10 -- Three brothers died due to suffocation while attempting to fix a pump belt around 20 feet deep inside a well in Sarkathal village in Uttar Pradesh's Bijnor district on Sunday, police said. The victims were identified as Chhatrapal (25), his cousin Himanshu (22), and his younger brother Kashish (20), said Shivala Kalan police station SHO Rajeev Kumar Sharma.

Chhatrapal went into the well first and lost consciousness allegedly due to the toxic gas inside. Himanshu and Kashish went in one after another to rescue him, and fell unconscious as well, the SHO said.

Hearing shouts for help from a villager, locals gathered at the spot. Another villager named Chetan Kumar, after wrapping a wet cloth around his face, descended in...