PHITSANULOK: A farmer and his son both died after going down a deep well in the middle of a rice field in Muang district on Wednesday, police said.
Pol Capt Sirasik Boonkerd, an investigator at Wang Nam Khu, said Boonmak Makpokha, 59, went down the well, which was about 7 metres deep, in the morning to repair a water pump at the bottom.
The borehole is reinforced down to the bottom with seven concrete rings.
A local resident told police that Boonmak went down the well about 8am. Shortly afterwards his son Panuphan, 25, arrived. He looked down the well and saw his father lying unconscious at the bottom. He quickly went down the well to help but, like his father, fell unconscious.
Panuphan's elder brother called for help.
Rescuers soon arrived and managed to lift Boonmak and Panuphan up to the surface, one at a time, using a rope. They performed CPR on both of them, but it was too late. They were dead.
Neighbours believed the two men had inhaled hydrogen sulfide, a toxic gas produced naturally by decaying organic matter and that smells like rotten eggs, which had permeated the well.
The bodies were taken to Naresuan University Hospital for an autopsy to establish the cause of death.