PHUKET: Four workers died in a sewer tunnel beneath Phuket City today, sparking calls for improved industrial safety.

Rescuers wearing breathing apparatus retrieved the bodies, but only after one Kusoldharm Foundation charity worker almost succumbed to the fumes and narrowly avoided become a fifth victim.

He was in a serious condition this afternoon after being transferred from the Phuket Provincial Administration Organisation Hospital, near where the incident occurred, to Vachira Phuket Hospital.

The workers went in to clean the sewer beneath Srisuthat Rd without breathing equipment. They went in one by one, and one by one fell to the gasses.

Brothers were among the victims. The workers were doing the job for Phuket City municipal council.

The dead men were named as Suchet Chitecholtan, Thawat Chitcholtan, Abhisit Tipprasong and Sanan Pangchuma.

Safety standards in dangerous situations are often breached on Phuket, where equipment considered vital in other countries is often not part of the budget for the organisations involved.