A power leak from lamp post number 86 caused the electrocution

Police in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 5 said Tuesday a 13-year-old boy had died of electrocution the day before due to a power leak from a street lamp post after heavy rains.

Co Quoc Duy and two school friends were riding on Tran Hung Dao Street at around 7:20 p.m. on Monday when they all were electrocuted.

They fell off their bikes onto the flooded street due to the shock.

Duy was pronounced dead on his way to the hospital. One of his friends was unhurt and the other has been hospitalized.

Police said a power leak from lamp post number 86 had caused the electrocution.

However, a manager at the city’s Public Lighting Company, who requested anonymity, told Thanh Nien Tuesday that the company’s technicians had worked with the police but had yet to determine the source of the power leak on the lamp post.

Pham Ngoc Giau, a xe om (motorbike taxi) driver who witnessed the electrocution, said the lamp post had not been working properly although some technicians came to check it.

Giau also said the power was not shut down until one hour after the boys fell down.

In April, a 22-year-old woman was killed when she was electrocuted by a live wire that snapped and fell onto a flooded street in Tan Phu District. Experts blamed the failure of the Ho Chi Minh City Power Company’s automatic shutoff system for the electrocution.

Reported by Dam Huy-Le Nga