MUSCAT: Around 10 families living in five different buildings behind the Indian School Darsait (ISD) Junior Wing building on Way No.1315 reported suffering electric shock as they opened taps in their flats.
An emergency team from Muscat Electricity Distribution Company (MEDC) rushed to the spot after getting information at 11am and rectified the fault by 2pm.
“It happened at around 9:30am. I was in my office. My wife called me saying she had suffered an electric shock when she opened the water tap in the kitchen. I advised her to switch off the main power supply box and rushed home. When I reached home, I saw that my wife was not even able to move,” Rafeeq told Times of Oman.
Damaged cable
“I was not able to move for a few minutes. I called my neighbour for help. She came and switched off the main power supply box. Even after switching off the main power, we suffered electric shock when we opened the tap in our bathroom,” Naseema, Rafeeq’s wife, said.
“I thought that it was due to some technical fault in our flat. But when we checked with our neighbours, they said they too had experienced the same,” Rafeeq said, while adding that his wife is still suffering from severe headache. Later, he took his wife to a doctor for treatment. Most of the families switched off their main power supply in their flats and stood outside on the main road.
When contacted, an official from the MEDC said that the electric shock occurred due to the damage caused to an underground 415V supply line feeding power to the affected buildings from a nearby substation.
“The insulation layers of the underground power supply line were found punctured. For the time being, our emergency team has shifted the power supply to a new line to resolve the problem. We’ll conduct a probe as to how the line was punctured,” Zahran Al Ruqeshi, MEDC communication specialist, told Times of Oman.
“Due to the damage, the power leaked to the neutral line and affected power supply in the buildings. We suspect that circuit breakers or earthing system in the affected buildings might have been faulty,” he added.
Even after the fault was rectified, the residents are still puzzled about how it occurred. Some suspect that water overflowing from a burst pipeline due to construction work and the power leakage from the supply line might have been the reason behind the fault.
“Even after the main power supply boxes in our flats were switched off, why did we experience electrical shock when we opened the taps? Now, we are using electrical testers to check whether the water is carrying electricity or not,” Shakeer a resident of one of the affected buildings, said.
“It could have turned fatal if the shock were of high voltage,” he said, adding that they were maintaining extra caution now.
(Follow timesofoman.com on Facebook and on Twitter for updates that you can share with your friends.)
