Five construction workers were electrocuted yesterday morning after touching an exposed electrical wire in Kampong Thom province’s Santuk district, authorities said.

Mao Chanthy, police chief of the Kampong Thma commune, said the five men had been building a house and pulled on what they thought was just a wire.

The men were in a human chain and the electricity was passed from each man to the next upon which they were immediately electrocuted and fell unconscious.

“Nearby villagers rescued them by burying them in the sand in order to reduce their body heat,” Mao Chanthy said.

The victims  had regained consciousness after being buried and suffered only minor burns to their hands and parts of their bodies, he said.