Three men have been confirmed to die of suffocation on Thursday as two of them came to the rescue of the other who had been unconscious while working inside a well in a rural area in northern Vietnam.

Quan Van Chinh, 40, fainted while digging a water well on Thursday in Lang Giang District of Bac Giang Province, located to the east of Hanoi, according to a local leader.

Nguyen Van Hung, Chinh’s 58-year-old father-in-law, immediately climbed down the well to save him but also fell unconscious shortly afterward.

Pham Van Thang, 34, who hired them to dig the well, saw their situation and cried for help before going down to the bottom himself and sharing the same fate.

The three men were retrieved by neighbors but they were found dead at the time.

Having investigated the scene and conducted post-mortems, local authorities concluded that the victims died from asphyxiation, the local leader added.

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