CHANDIGARH: One person was electrocuted and 20 others were injured when a canter-truck carrying fifty devotees to Gogamedi in Rajasthan from Karnal in Haryana on a pilgrimage came in contact with a high-voltage power line in Karnal.
As per the police the incident occurred on Saturday night when the canter carrying over 50 pilgrims struck a high-voltage live wire near the mini bypass in Gharaunda in Karnal, causing burn and other injuries to over 20 people including men, women and children a few of them are stated to be critical condition, also one person was electrocuted and thus he died in the incident. On hearing the cries of the pilgrims, a local rushed to help.
A police official said the canter had a metal pipe fitted onto an extra frame on top of the vehicle which touched an overhead high-voltage power line. The injured have been admitted to government hospitals in Karnal and Panipat.
A doctor at the hospital in Karnal told the media that some patients were suffering from arrhythmia (an abnormal heart rate or rhythm), low blood pressure and body pain.
It is learnt that many of these devotees used to every year got for this pilgrimage every year and this year the driver to the vehicle was new person.
Sources pointed out that when the truck touched the high voltage wires the electricity went off but after few seconds it reportedly again came and the current spread in the canter-truck and the devotes got electric shocks thus there was hue and cry. While of the pilgrims jumped of the vehicle in order to save themselves and thus got injured.
A devotee’s relative claimed that there was an 11 KV wire above. The wire touched the vehicle, and after coming into contact, the vehicle caught fire. "Those who were sitting in the vehicle with back support got burnt,’’ he said.