Two children electrocuted in Ghaziabad wedding

Two children were killed and three others sustained critical burns when they were electrocuted while carrying lamps during a wedding function here, police said on Tuesday.

The incident occurred late Monday in Morta locality under Murad Nagar police station of Ghaziabad.

The police said the five children were carrying the lamps on their shoulders and power was being supplied to them from a portable generator. The children were escorting the horse-carriage in which the bridegroom was riding.

Police, quoting witnesses, said that around midnight, there was apparently a short circuit and electric current started flowing through the iron rods which the children had placed on their shoulders to carry the lamps.

All the children collapsed due to electrocution. They were rushed to a local hospital where doctors declared two of them -- Sachin (15) and Nazim (14) -- dead. The injured children were identified as Sunder, Irfan and Titu. All of them were under 16 years of age, the police said.

The horse-carriage and generator contractors Naushad and Asgar, respectively, have been arrested. They were booked under the Juvenile Justice Act and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, said Ajay Pal, the superintendent of Ghaziabad police.