A former pub landlord was electrocuted as he tried to capture “the perfect photo” on holiday in India, a coroner said.
Ivan Brown, 71, from Norwich, was on a low wall when he fell and grabbed a live electrical wire above him.
An inquest heard how he had been trying to take a picture of the Himalayas in Dalhousie, India on 2 April.
In a statement, his travelling companion David Linder said he believed his friend “died instantly”.
The Norwich inquest was told a post-mortem examination, carried out by Dr Sophia Neda in the UK, found abrasions to his legs and head.
Dr Neda concluded that his death was most likely due to a heart arrhythmia (abnormal heart rhythm) induced by an electrical current.
Mr Linder’s statement said he and his friend had planned the trip for a year, and that “it was a fantastic time, full of wonder and discovery”.
The pair had arrived in Dalhousie on 31 March amid wet weather, offering poor visibility of the mountains they were keen to see.
Leaving on 2 April, the weather broke to reveal brilliant sunshine and the Himalayas in their full glory, he said, and the pair asked a driver to take them to a viewpoint to take a picture.
“Ivan was forever in search of the perfect photo,” said Mr Linder, who told the court his friend climbed on to a nearby low wall to capture an image.
He reached up to a cable to steady himself, but it was live, causing him to fall, hitting his head on the wall, the inquest heard.
Efforts made to resuscitate him by a local doctor failed, said Mr Linder, who added: “I believe he died instantly.”
The father of three had been a landlord of pubs including The Murderers, The Eagle and The Jubilee in Norwich.
His daughter said at the time of his death: “This should never have happened; he should be coming home to us. We loved him dearly”.
His wife Jackie told the coroner that her husband “was so accident-prone”, and had once fallen down a ravine searching for his drone and had to be rescued.
She said she was at least “glad he was having a good time”, when he died.
The coroner offered the family her condolences and concluded that Mr Brown’s cause of death was an accident, from electrocution.
The family was told earlier this year that Indian police were investigating why the wire was live, and that information from police and the embassy had mentioned “a few incidents at this place”.
Source : BBC