19 electrocuted in carnivals in Brazil, Haiti

People walk in the street where a power line electrocuted a performer riding on top a musical group’s float during a carnival parade in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015. At least 16 other people were killed after the man was electrocuted, setting off a panic in which dozens of people were trampled, witnesses and officials said. AP

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Haiti was plunged into mourning and Carnival festivities were cancelled Tuesday after at least 16 people died when a high-voltage cable hit a parade float in the capital Port-au-Prince.

This happened after three men were also killed early Tuesday in the southeastern Brazilian city of Nova Iguacu when a Carnival float ran into a power line, local media reported.

A woman walks away from bodies after failing to find a missing family member among them outside the morgue at the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015. At least 16 people were killed early Tuesday after a man on top of a musical group’s Carnival float was electrocuted, setting off a panic in which dozens of people were trampled, witnesses and officials said. The woman said she would continue looking at a different hospital. AP

At the Brazil incident, the Palmerinha samba school was getting ready to go on parade when one of its floats hit the power line, electrocuting the three men riding it.

Emergency personnel tried to revive them, but without success, officials quoted on the Globo G1 news site said.

In Haiti, another 78 people were injured in the accident, which occurred shortly before 3:00 am (0800 GMT) as thousands watched, marring what is normally a joyful high point of the year in the impoverished Caribbean country.

Authorities cancelled the third and last day of the carnival celebrations on Tuesday and declared three days of mourning.

Along the Champ de Mars, the parade ground not far from the presidential palace where the accident took place, the bleachers — normally full of revelers — were empty.

“What happened is a tragedy,” Prime Minister Evans Paul said.

The float — carrying a popular rap group called the Barikad Crew — struck a power line overhead as it made its way through the Champ de Mars, electrocuting the dancers and musicians riding on it.

The group’s star singer, who goes by the name “Fantom,” was struck directly by the fallen cable and was in hospital, the website Haiti Press Network said.

Some of the injured were hurt in the ensuing crush of revelers who panicked upon seeing the accident.