Six workers electrocuted, killed

Six workers were electrocuted while dismantling a motor garage located inside a filling station in Raipura of Narsingdi yesterday.

The deceased have been identified as Barkat Hossain, 22, Hakim Mistri, 50, Awal Miah, 20, Kawsar, 30, Zakaria, 25, and Abul Faiz, 30.

Of them, Faiz died at a hospital in Bhairab after being rushed there for treatment. Bodies of the other five were recovered from the spot.

Officer-in-Charge of Raipura Police Station Delwar Hossain confirmed the incident.

The OC said police recovered the bodies and sent those to Narsingdi Sadar Hospital morgue for autopsies.

Locals said the incident took place around 3:45pm at Tabassum Motors located inside Lal Mia Filling Station on the Dhaka-Syhet highway at Gokulnagar under Raipura.

Ibrahim Mia of Bhairab, owner of the garage, rented a portion of the filling station and built the garage there five years ago, locals said.

Yesterday, the garage was dismantled as the five-year deal between Ibrahim and the filling station authority expired recently, according to locals.

The incident took place when the workers, who were hired by Ibrahim, were carrying a movable iron staircase of the filling station.

At one point, as the staircase came beneath an electric line set up above the garage, it touched the line and electrocuted the workers, leaving five of them dead on the spot.

Garage-owner Ibrahim went into hiding following the incident.

Md Shairul Islam, general manager of Narsingdi Palli Bidyut Samiti-2, said the electric line carries 11,000 volts of electricity.

He claimed the line is set up 25 feet above the ground and that it had no technical faults when the incident took place.

Raipura Upazila Nirbahi Officer   Md Abdullah and OC Delwar visited  the spot.