BALASORE: A teacher of a private school was electrocuted to death after coming in contact with an 11 kV wire while setting up the national flag for hoisting in Maitapur village under Balasore’s Simulia block on Saturday. Three students also suffered injuries in the incident.
The deceased was identified as Priyabrata Barik (32) of Jaleswar. He was a physical education teacher at Royal Public School in Maitapur.
The incident occurred around 7.10 am when students and teachers had assembled for the flag-hoisting ceremony on the occasion of Independence Day.
Barik reportedly tied the Tricolour to an iron pipe with a rope and was preparing to erect it when the pipe accidentally came in contact with an overhead 11 kV power line. Barik suffered severe electric shock, while three students who were assisting him were also injured.
The school authorities immediately alerted local electricity officials, following which the power connection was disconnected. Barik suffered critical injuries and was rushed to Simulia community health centre (CHC) along with the three students. He was later shifted to Bhadrak district headquarters hospital but was declared dead by doctors. The three injured students are undergoing treatment at Simulia CHC.
On being informed, Simulia tehsildar Soumyaranjan Mohapatra, additional tehsildar Nityananda Sethi and Simulia IIC Debraj Jena rushed to the school and launched an investigation into the incident.
An unnatural death case was registered and Barik’s body handed over to his family after postmortem, police said.