Two people reportedly died after falling into an open-pit toilet.
In Xinxiang City, in China’s Henan Province, a woman dropped her cell phone worth US$300 into a cesspit.
Her husband, in an attempt to get back her phone, climbed down into the pit. However, he lost consciousness while inside the knee-deep pit due to a lack of oxygen. The woman’s mother-in-law tried to jump in to save her son, but also passed out.
After the woman shouted for help, neighbors came, and many tried to rescue them, but some of them also fainted.
“The smell was too strong. I lost consciousness before I could see anything,” a neighbor said.
After finding a rope, the people pulled a total of six people out of the cesspit.
The husband and his mother had weak pulses immediately following the rescue, but they were both pronounced dead upon the arrival of medical respondents.
