MADRID, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Three workers have died after being poisoned by fumes while they were cleaning a vat used for fermenting wine in a winery in the Carinera wine region in central Spain.
The regional government of the Autonomous Community of Aragon and Civil Guards confirm that two Rumanians aged 44 and 33 died at the Panzia winery, which is located in the village of the same name, close to the city of Zaragoza, on Tuesday morning.
A third man, who was Spanish, was evacuated to hospital in Zaragoza by helicopter, but died during the night.
The incident happened at around 10:00 a.m. local time while the trio were cleaning deposits in a vat where grape juice is fermented into wine.
According to reports in the Spanish media, their workmates became worried after not hearing from them and later found the two Rumanians dead and the third person unconscious.
"Everything indicates that poisonous gas was produced in one of the vats, but we don't know anything for certain," Jose Manuel Cebrian, the Mayor of Panzia (a small town of around 600 inhabitants), commented in the press.
"All of the village is very affected by the incident," he added.
The Panzia winery published a communique in which "deeply lamented the labor accident which happened in our installations," and "expressed deepest sympathy for the tragic accident."
The winery added that it was "waiting for the results of the investigation" into the incident.
