BALASORE: Hours after they returned from the sea, two fishermen were found dead under mysterious circumstances in the storage room of Balaramgadi fish landing centre in Balasore on Saturday.
The deceased were identified as Sendha Mallik (30) and Madhusudan Mallik (40). Both were last seen entering the store room. Later, when they did not come out, fellow fishermen went inside and found them in an unconscious state.
They were rushed to the district headquarters hospital in Balasore where doctors declared them dead. Both belonged to Basudevpur of Bhadrak district.
Sources said, Sendha and Madhusudan, along with five other fishermen had ventured into the sea for fishing in a trawler a week ago. After completing fishing, they returned to the fish landing centre at Balaramgadi. The catch was unloaded and both Sendha and Madhusudan took some quantity of the fish into the ice chamber where they are believed to have fallen unconscious.
The other fishermen went into the store room after the duo did not return to the trawler site, only to find them lying on the floor. It is suspected the two were asphyxiated by some toxic fume emanating from the preservatives used on the fish inside the storage room.
Balaramgadi Marine police rushed to the hospital, seized the bodies and sent them for postmortem after informing the family members.
Inspector-in-charge N Pal said an unnatural death case has been registered and exact reason behind death will be ascertained after postmortem report is available.