3 college students electrocuted

COIMBATORE:  Three engineering students were electrocuted after they tried to erect an iron pole near their college gate and came into contact with a live wire, here on Thursday night.The students were pursuing their second-year BE (Instrumentation and Control Engineering) at the self-financing Tamil Nadu College of Engineering (TCE) at Karumathampatti here.The victims were trying to fix an iron pole near their college gate to put up a flex banner for their departmental function ‘Zelaine 2011’ when it touched a high-tension wire overhead.Four others, including a final-year student, who were standing nearby, escaped with burns.Following the incident, a pall of gloom descended on the campus. The bodies of the victims —J Nandakumar of Theni, T Velumani of Erode, and M Vignesh of Salem—were taken to the Government Coimbatore Medical College for postmortem on Friday.College authorities declared a holiday after conducting a condolence meeting and asked hostellers to vacate their rooms. The institution would reopen on Tuesday.Eyewitnesses said the students had lifted a 30-ft long iron pole to put it into a pit. “When the iron pole accidentally touched the HT overhead power cables, the students were thrown off,” a police officer said.As the students fell unconscious on the ground, they were rushed to a nearby private hospital. Later, they were shifted to the GH, where doctors declared them brought dead. All the deceased were staying in the college hostel and hailed from poor families.One of their classmates, Balaji recalled, “They were good in academics and had scored an aggregate of above 80 per cent in the first year university examinations.”