Shanghai electric company denies dead men were its employees

The Shanghai Municipal Electric Power Company said Tuesday that the three men who died after entering a manhole in Baoshan district were cable thieves, denying reports that they were company workers.

Several witnesses saw the three men lift the manhole cover and go into the sewer system around 6:30 pm Monday, the Xinmin Evening News reported. They were wearing safety helmets and clothing that looked like power company uniforms.

The local news portal xinmin.cn reported Monday that the men were power company workers who were there to repair electricity cables.

The manhole was located at the intersection of Gonghexin and Huma roads.

The three men fell unconscious after breathing in a high level of hydrogen sulfide, a highly poisonous gas often found in sewers. At 6:55 pm, a fourth man who was waiting outside the manhole flagged down a passing fire engine to ask for help, the Xinmin Evening News reported. The firefighters went down the manhole wearing gas masks and retrieved the three men, who later died at the hospital.

The fourth man told police that the group had been hired by the power company, the Jiefang Daily reported.

The Shanghai Municipal Electric Power Company denied that the dead men worked for the company, said Gu Weicheng, a press officer for one of the company's subsidiaries that oversees that area. "We did not schedule any work on that road yesterday evening, and none of those men were our company's workers," Gu told the Global Times.

Gu acknowledged that the men drove a yellow vehicle similar in color to the company's maintenance trucks, but he did not say whether it was a company vehicle.

The man who waved down the fire truck has been taken into police custody for questioning, the Jiefang Daily reported. There was also a fifth man who fled the scene.

Police have not released the identities of the five men.

Investigators are now looking into why the men were wearing what appeared to be power company uniforms, said Zeng Ni, a press officer with the Baoshan police.