Balearic storm death toll rises to four

The storms, which have been raging since last weekend, claimed their fourth victim in Majorca yesterday. Sixty-one-year-old electrical engineer José Armenta Bravo died after suffering a powerful electric shock while repairing damaged cables on a property near Alcudia. The engineer worked for Tebalsa-Elecnor which has been contracted out by power company GESA to help repair damage caused by the storms which have battered the region since last Saturday. According to the 112 emergency centre, the accident happened at 10am while José Armenta was repairing a medium-tension power line. He was hit by a bolt of 15'000 volts and suffered a heart attack. A team of paramedics tried to resuscitate the engineer at the scene of the accident before rushing him to hospital in Muro. A spokesperson for GESA said yesterday that the company regularly contracted out the services of Tebalsa-Elecnor and that a full investigation is to be launched in order to determine the cause of the accident, considering that a warning was issued on Wednesday night for safety precautions to be stepped up for all those involved in the clean-up operation. Four people have now been killed since last Saturday by the storm. In the early hours of Sunday morning a taxi driver was killed and his two passengers injured when a tree was blown over and on to his taxi along the Paseo Maritimo in Palma.