Two foreign nationals died and two other people were injured after a suspected electrical leak at the Conrad Bengaluru hotel pool in the city’s Halasuru neighborhood on Oct. 30, police said, Fox News reported.
Bengaluru Police Commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh told investigators suspected an electrical leak but that officials were awaiting medical, technical and expert reports to determine the cause, Fox News reported. Authorities cordoned off the pool area for the investigation.
Police and local media identified the deceased 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 IBM, The New Indian Express reported.
A 41-year-old American guest, Mathew Desantis, and a 28-year-old pool attendant and lifeguard, Rahul Tiwari, were injured while attempting to help, The New Indian Express reported. Manipal Hospital said four people were taken to the facility; Theiss was deceased on arrival and Horvat died after doctors attempted to revive him, NDTV reported. The hospital said Desantis was stable after experiencing a headache and shock and that Tiwari was also stable; doctors planned to check Tiwari for possible fractures, The Times of India reported.
Lufthansa confirmed in a statement, as reported by Fox News, that a member of its crew had died during a layover in Bengaluru and expressed condolences while asking for privacy for those affected.
Theiss’ wife filed a police complaint alleging the men were shocked while trying to get out of the pool and drowned, NDTV reported. Investigators have not confirmed the cause of the incident.
Conrad Bengaluru said it was saddened by the deaths and was assisting authorities, and that the cause “has not yet been established,” NDTV reported. The hotel’s website listed the pool as closed for maintenance from Oct. 31 through Nov. 30; available reports have not established whether that closure was related to the incident.
A joint technical investigation was examining the pool’s pump, underwater lighting and earthing lines, The Federal reported, and preliminary inspections focused on the underwater lighting system as a possible source of an electrical fault, The Times of India reported.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
