11 electrocuted in Uttar Pradesh

LUCKNOW - Three women and eight men, engaged in Uttar Pradesh government-sponsored construction work, were electrocuted and two others injured in Lakhimpur Kheri district Tuesday, an official said.

“The accident took place at a construction site, where labourers were working for a housing project undertaken by the State Urban Development Authority (SUDA),” District Magistrate Sameer Verma told IANS on phone from Lakhimpur Kheri, some 150 km from here.

“It occurred when some pipe of a concrete mixer fitted on a vehicle came in contact with a high tension wire, subsequently electrocuting the labourers handling the machine,” he said.

Verma said the labourers were deployed for the Integrated Housing Slum Development Programme sponsored by SUDA.

Two people injured in the accident were being treated at a hospital.

The contractor of the construction site escaped soon after the accident took place. “He (contractor) is still absconding. Teams have been constituted to trace him,” police inspector Vinod Mishra said.