Five workers died of asphyxiation while they were cleaning a reactor at Sampath Oil Refinery Private Limited in Tubinakere industrial area in Mandya on Thursday.
When the brigade arrived, they found that the workers were unconscious in the reactor. The brigade personnel had to use gas cutters to open the reactor and extricate the bodies.
Owners of the refinery Kumar and Arun were not reachable as their mobile phones were switched off. Authorities have been instructed to find them. A case has been registered, District Superintendent of Police Bhushan Borase told .