A New Yorker was killed when he slipped on a wet sidewalk and was electrocuted by a faulty streetlight in Thailand, authorities said Friday.
Thura Kyaw, 33, was walking with his girlfriend to a seafood restaurant in the Thalang district at around 9:30 p.m. Thursday when he fell on the rainy street and tried to steady himself on a light pole, police and witnesses told thethaiger.com.
The street lamp, which may have had a live wire, zapped him into a state of unconsciousness and he was rushed to a nearby hospital, Police Major Thanom Thongpaen told the outlet.
A stunned witness ran to help him to no avail.
“I saw that the man had fallen, but his leg was still touching the pole. I tried to touch him but I was zapped myself,” the witness, identified only as Phiew, told the Asia Pacific Press.
“I managed to remove his leg from the streetlight before calling an ambulance,” he said.
Kyaw, who was also Burmese by nationality, had flown from the US a week ago to visit his long-distance partner, whom he had not seen in six years, according to a friend of his girlfriend.
“I was eating dinner at the restaurant when they arrived. His girlfriend was walking ahead, and he slipped on the wet ground while following her,” the friend said.
Officials later cut off power to the light pole, which carried 220 volts of electricity, to prevent another fatal accident.
Kyaw was pronounced dead at the Thalang Hospital, authorities said.
It wasn’t immediately clear where in New York he lived or what he did for work.
Thai police couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Friday.
