a694: Fifteen killed in Haiti electricity wire accident (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Fifteen people were killed in the
Haitian capital when a high-tension electricity wire collapsed on a local
market, hospital officials said on Friday.
     The accident occurred late on Thursday night in the Carrefour-Feuilles
district of Port-au-Prince as vendors were busy clearing up their wares for
the day.
     Officials at the Port-au-Prince General Hospital said that 11 people
were killed at the scene and four others died later at the hospital of
their injuries.
     Angry residents of the district said that they blamed the national
power company, l'Electricite d'Haiti (EDH) for negligence and failure to
respond to previous complaints from residents about the instability of the
cables. There was no immediate comment from EDH.
     "I appeal to people for calm in the face of this terrible tragedy,"
Haitian National Police spokesman Jean Dady Simeon told reporters as he
arrived at the scene on Thursday night.
     On Friday morning, local radio stations said several hundred residents
from the neighborhood held a demonstration, demanding that EDH make
restitution for the accident and help pay for funerals.