KARACHI: Two labourers died of suffocation while working on a ship at Karachi Port Trust on Tuesday, officials and sources at the port said.

The body of one of the labourers was recovered minutes after the incident but it took much time to recover that of the second one, said the officials.

They said the incident was reported in the small hours of the day. The labourers, Habibullah, 35, and Aslam Samoo, 37, had by mistake entered a ‘wrong hatch’ and fell into it due to poor visibility. They died of suffocation, they added.

The ship was carrying 60,000 tonnes of soybean.

Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Faisal Subzwari described the incident as “unfortunate” but ruled out possibility of leakage of some poisonous gas leading to the labourers’ death.