Woman Electrocuted To Death When Charging Phone Fell Into Bathtub

A Russian woman died recently after getting electrocuted while using her phone during a bath.

The deceased, identified only as Anastasia, 20, was found dead by her mother in the bathtub after the latter returned from her job. She initially tried calling out to her daughter after returning to their home in Moscow but received no answer. Seeing that the bathroom light was on, she went in.

"I saw Nastya [Anastasia] lying in an empty bath. In one hand, she was holding her mobile phone plugged into the socket, and in the other she had a bath plug. I thought she was alive but unconscious so I called the ambulance,” the mother said, Mail Online reported Tuesday. “Paramedics came very quickly but they could only register the death of my daughter.”

After Anastasia, who worked in a supermarket, was declared dead at the scene, an autopsy report revealed she died of a severe electric shock when her charging phone fell into the bathtub. The exact date of her death was not clear.

There have been a number of similar deaths reported in the country in recent months, making officials issue warnings against using phones while bathing. Electronics engineer Andrey Stanovsky has warned that “relaxing in a bathroom with your mobile phone plugged is like playing Russian roulette”.

A week before Anastasia’s death, Yulia Vysotskaya, 14, from Cheboksary, died when her phone slipped out of her hands and fell into the bathtub. The warning against using mobile phones during bath gained prominence in December when Russian martial arts champion Irina Rybnikova, 15, died while using her iPhone, which was plugged into a charger.

After Irina’s death, Yury Agrafonov, the head of radio-electronic department of Irkutsk State University, said, “Water is a good conductor. This is why there was a short circuit when the phone fell into the water. If the phone had not been plugged in to 220 volts, the tragedy would not have happened.”

Such incidents were not only happening in Russia but in other parts of the world as well. In March, a seven-year-old boy was electrocuted to death in Jakarta, Indonesia, while he was playing a game on his grandmother’s mobile phone as it was charging.