{"id":28770,"date":"2022-02-03T08:53:51","date_gmt":"2022-02-03T05:53:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/?p=28770"},"modified":"2022-02-03T08:53:52","modified_gmt":"2022-02-03T05:53:52","slug":"dr-congo-power-cable-collapse-at-kinshasa-market-kills-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/2022\/02\/03\/dr-congo-power-cable-collapse-at-kinshasa-market-kills-26\/","title":{"rendered":"DR Congo: Power cable collapse at Kinshasa market kills 26"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>At least 26 people have died after they were electrocuted by a falling power cable at a market in the Democratic Republic of Congo, police say.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The high-voltage cable snapped and fell onto houses and people shopping near the capital Kinshasa on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Unverified footage posted to social media appeared to show the aftermath of the incident, with several motionless bodies in puddles of water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is not yet clear what caused the power cable to break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But in a statement, DR Congo&#8217;s national electricity company said it believed lightning had struck part of the cable, causing it to fall to the ground. The company sent condolences to the victims&#8217; families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Police said the collapse happened at the Matadi-Kibala district on the outskirts of Kinshasa and that a number of people died on the spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Local media report that the majority of the victims are female market traders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The cable snapped and the live end of it fell into a ditch that was filled with water after morning rain,&#8221; Charles Mbutamuntu, spokesman for the Kinshasa provincial government, told AFP news agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mr Mbutamuntu said the bodies had been taken to the morgue and an investigation into the incident was under way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Prime Minister Sama Lukonde visited the market later on Wednesday. In comments posted to Twitter, he described the incident as a &#8220;terrible accident&#8221;, adding: &#8220;I share the immense pain of the families. My thoughts are also with all the injured.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Several districts of the capital are prone to flooding due to poorly maintained colonial-era drainage systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One trader said the market often flooded when it rained, with workers and shoppers having to wade through water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>BBC Africa News<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At least 26 people have died after they were electrocuted by a falling power cable at a market in the Democratic Republic of Congo, police say. The high-voltage cable snapped and fell onto houses and people shopping near the capital Kinshasa on Wednesday. Unverified footage posted to social media appeared to show the aftermath of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27983,"featured_media":28772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_paywall_metabox":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[161],"tags":[818],"class_list":["post-28770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-dr-congo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27983"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28770"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28773,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28770\/revisions\/28773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}