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LUCKNOW, India -- Fifteen people including six policer officers died Wednesday by electrocution after a transformer exploded near a sewage treatment plant in northern India, police said.
Several other people were injured in the accident, which occurred on the banks of the Alaknanda river, and were sent to a hospital in Uttarakhand state’s Chamoli district, police officer Parmendra Doval said.
The cause of the explosion was not immediately known, and the state's chief minister, Pushkar Singh Dhami, ordered an investigation into the incident.
The accident occurred as water levels in most rivers in northern India have risen due to record monsoon rains. Heavy floods have killed more than 100 people in the region in the past three weeks.
In April, 11 people were electrocuted when their truck touched an overhead power line during a Hindu festival procession in southern India.
