Labourer setting up pandal electrocuted

6 others injured, condition of two said to be serious

A labourer was electrocuted and six others were injured when a trolley they were standing on touched a high-tension wire in Outer Delhi’s Alipur area on Thursday afternoon.

The labourers were installing a temporary shed (pandal) at a wedding venue by standing on a trolley when accidently it touched an overhead high tension wire causing a strong electric shock.

“The incident happened around 3 pm when the workers were installing a pandal at the wedding venue,” said an eyewitness.

“As the labourers were dragging the trolley on the ground, it suddenly touched an overhead high-tension wire and the current pulled them towards it. All got glued to the metal trolley due to the electric shock,” the eyewitness said.

Other labourers standing there then picked ropes lying on the ground and threw it towards the trolley. They then pulled it away from the wire.

All the seven labourers – Danish, 24, Majeed, 40, Imran, 19, Anwar, 17, Anas, 14, Usman, 28, and Mustakim, 26, were taken in two vehicles arranged by the owner of the wedding venue to Narela’s Raja Harish Chandra Hospital.

Danish was declared brought dead by the doctors, and the rest were referred to Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital. Out of the injured two have sustained 70% burn injuries, and their condition is said to be serious but stable.

All the injured and the deceased hail from Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh. Police have registered a case. Police are questioning the owner of the Palm Green farm house where the wedding venue was located. Police have sent the body for postmortem.