Suspected Electrical Leak at Bengaluru Five-Star Hotel Pool: Two Foreign Guests Die, Two Injured
Police in Bengaluru, in India's Karnataka state, said two foreign guests died and two other people were injured on the evening of October 30 at the third-floor swimming pool of the Conrad Bengaluru, a five-star hotel in the city's Halasuru area. The incident happened at about 6:30 p.m.; police suspect electricity leaked into the pool water, but the exact cause of death has not been established and investigators are awaiting forensic, technical and medical reports.
The dead were identified as Alexander Maximilian Theiss, 57, a German national and Lufthansa crew member, and Juraj Horvat, 45, a Slovak national who worked as a project manager for the technology company IBM; both were staying at the hotel. The four were taken to Manipal Hospital, where Theiss was dead on arrival and Horvat died despite resuscitation efforts. The injured were Mathew DeSantis, a 41-year-old American guest, and Rahul Tiwari, a 28-year-old hotel lifeguard, who were hurt while pulling the two men out of the pool; both were reported in stable condition.
Bengaluru Police Commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh said investigators suspect an electrical leak into the pool and are examining the pool pumps, underwater lighting and earthing system, with preliminary inspections focused on the underwater lights. Halasuru police have registered a case of causing death by negligence against the hotel management on a complaint from a victim's family.
The Conrad Bengaluru is part of Hilton's Conrad Hotels & Resorts brand. The hotel said it was "deeply saddened" by the deaths of its two guests, that the cause had not yet been established, and that it was cooperating with the authorities' investigation; its website listed the pool as closed for maintenance from October 31 to November 30. Indian media counted the deaths as the third fatal pool electrocution incident in Bengaluru in four years.
Source: Bengaluru City Police
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：事发酒店印度班加罗尔 Conrad Bengaluru（资料图）。照片 CC BY-SA 4.0，作者 Soumendrak，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Conrad Bengaluru hotel in Bengaluru, India, where the incident occurred (file photo). CC BY-SA 4.0, by Soumendrak, via Wikimedia Commons.
