In Almaty, an 18-month-old girl was hospitalised after being electrocuted in a courtyard.
According to KTK, she touched a piece of metal reinforcement protruding from the ground next to a street lamp. The victim was taken to intensive care, and doctors currently assess her condition as moderately severe.
According to the girl's mother, Dinara Bimurzaeva, the tragedy occurred during an ordinary walk. The toddler was playing near a bench and suddenly fell.
"She was sitting, playing with pebbles as usual. She saw a small piece of reinforcement sticking out and wanted to pick it up. At that moment, she was electrocuted. She couldn't let go of her hand; she couldn't even make a sound. She was shaking, and her hand wouldn't come off the reinforcement. I pulled her away at that moment. I started examining her hand — it was all blue, blisters appeared. I didn't understand what had happened and touched the reinforcement. I was also electrocuted," the woman recounted.
Doctors diagnosed the girl with an electrical injury, third-degree burns and first-degree electric shock. She spent the first 24 hours in intensive care, and was later transferred to the burns unit.
The house in whose courtyard the incident occurred was handed over for occupancy almost two years ago. According to residents, the courtyard is landscaped, but the developer did not ensure the safety of the utility networks. Local residents note that the street lighting components have been poorly concealed and, as it turned out, are live.
"We passed through here, we walked around. So, the reinforcement was live, and consequently, the girl was electrocuted. Where did that reinforcement come from? That question is for the developer. All the lines, all the utilities that run through our residential complex, are under the developer's responsibility. There has still been no transfer to a homeowners' association," stated one local resident.
The official representative of the Almaty Police Department, Saltanat Azirbek, stated that law enforcement officers have launched an investigation and are establishing all the circumstances of the incident.
The mother of the injured girl is preparing a lawsuit against the developer. According to her, this could have happened to any child, and the tragedy was only avoided thanks to the fact that adults were nearby.