A shocking viral video of a frightened young Indonesian boy hanging onto a power cable while suspended 15 meters in the air has been confirmed as real by local authorities, who are now telling the whole story.
The boy, named Nadin, was playing with his friends around extra high voltage (EHV) cables on Thursday afternoon in the Curug district of Tangerang, Banten. He did not realize they were in the process of being installed, the emergency and logistics head at the Tangerang Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) told local media. When he grabbed onto one of the cables while it was still hanging “low,” it was raised into the air and, too afraid to let go, the boy ended up holding on for dear life at 15 meters above the ground.
“Please, I don’t have a strong grip. I want to get down,” he cries in the video.
Residents scrambled to find soft objects for the boy to land on, such as mattresses. He eventually dropped and was caught by onlookers and taken to the hospital, sustaining only minor injuries.
A spokesman for the Tangerang branch of state-owned electricity firm PLN apologized for the incident, and promised stricter supervision policies for when cables are being installed in the future.
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