By Tim Ghianni
July 4 (Reuters) – A 10-year-old boy was electrocuted and
his friend seriously injured on Wednesday when they were shocked
after jumping into a lake off a docked houseboat in eastern
Tennessee.
Five people who tried to aid the children also were shocked
in the incident at the German Creek Boat Dock in Bean Station,
Tennessee, where two families were celebrating Independence Day
on a houseboat on Cherokee Lake, officials said.
“People on board the houseboat heard some screams and found
the two boys floating in the water, with their life jackets on,
unconscious,” said Matt Cameron, a spokesman for the Tennessee
Wildlife Resources Agency.
Bean Station is 45 miles northeast of Knoxville, Tennessee.
The second child, who is 11, was flown to the University of
Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville by helicopter where he was
in serious condition, while the five others were admitted to a
hospital in nearby Morristown, Tennessee, officials said.
“We’re hoping for the best, that’s all I can say about it
right now,” Cameron said of the second child.
Power was shut down to the marina where the electrocution
occurred and law enforcement and state officials were trying to
determine the source of the electricity, Cameron said.
(Reporting by Tim Ghianni in Nashville; Editing by David Bailey
and Peter Cooney)
