A 9-year-old girl, who was playing near power lines, was left hanging from an electricity cable at least 50 feet up in the air as workers raised them during the process of installation.

In the incident, which happened on Thursday in Curug district, Indonesia, the girl grabbed an extra high voltage (EHV) cable that was hanging low, and desperately clung to it as the workmen raised it into the air, according to local media.

“She did not know that the cables were being [installed]. She hang on to the cable when it was still low,” Kosrudin, emergency and logistics head at the Tangerang Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD), said.

A video clip of her crying for help circulated online. “Help, I can’t hold on anymore. I want to get down,” the unidentified girl was heard saying. The 45-second long video, which was posted on April 17, has since garnered 1.4 million views, and multiple reposts.

Her wails spurred the locals to arrange for a mattress beneath her position to help her land safely as she fell. Miraculously, she survived the fall without suffering serious injuries, and was taken to a local hospital.

Rizki Aftarianto, a spokesperson for the state-owned Tangerang branch electricity firm, apologized for the incident, saying he would amp up supervision at project sites. He also urged people, especially young children, not to play in the vicinity of an ongoing electricity project.

In a similar incident that occurred in January, a 7-year-old boy in China was made to dangle from a 50-feet high balcony by his grandmother with the help of a rope in order to save their family cat. The screams of the horrified onlookers fell to deaf ears but thankfully, the boy and the feline were pulled up to safety later. The video of the incident had gone viral on social media with several people criticizing the grandmother, who later said she didn’t weigh the potential adversity of the act before committing it.

Power Lines
Power Lines ErikaWittlieb/Pixabay
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