KASUR, Sept 21: Two factory workers died while three others fainted due to suffocation while inspecting a chemicals tank in paper mills on Multan Road in Phoolnagar police precincts on Friday evening.

Two labourers, Muhammad Asif and Rauf Ahmad, descended in a chemicals tank in Newton Paper Mills to check raw materials but did not return.

Their fellows Waris, Bashir and Altaf went to see them but they too did not return which triggered panic among the workers. Later, masked technicians went down and brought out the bodies of the five workers.

Muhammad Asif and Rouf Ahmed had expired while the three others were taken to Jinnaha Hospital in critical condition. The owner of the factory fled.

PROTEST: Hundreds of Lesco consumers here on Friday protested hours long unscheduled power outages and over billing.

The demonstrators led by union council nazims Arshad Rafique Ansari, Malik Khalid Iqbal and Sardar Liaqat Ali Dogar were holding placards and banners.

They said Wapda officials always turned a deaf ear to their complaints, which compelled them to come on the road. They demanded an immediate end to unscheduled power outages and redress of over-billing complaints.