A 16-year-old girl has died after being electrocuted in the bath while talking on the phone with a friend.
On Tuesday evening Maria Antonietta Cutillo was charging her phone while also holding it in the bathtub of her parent's home in Montefalcione, southern Italy.
According to local media, her parents were not present in the house when the teenager was tragically electrocuted.
It is thought that the phone must have slipped from her hand and triggered the short circuit after falling into the water.
The news shocked and upset the locals in the small town of Irpinia, where the victim’s family is well known.
In 2020, a schoolgirl died in her bath after a charging phone fell onto her chest and slipped into the water in France.
The 15-year-old, identified at the time as Tiffenn, was electrocuted after the device slipped into the water at her home in Marseille.
Emergency crews rushed the girl to hospital and tried to resuscitate her but to no avail.
Also in 2019, a 13-year-old girl in Amsterdam was electrocuted when her smartphone fell into the bath while it was charging.
The teenager's mother dragged her out of the bathtub after racing to the bathroom when she heard a loud scream. She had called the emergency services.
This girl did not die but was left with amnesia as a result of the incident and does not remember the moment she dropped the phone in the bath.
In 2017, Brit Richard Bull, 32, died when his iPhone charger made contact with the water at his home in Ealing, west London.
A coroner ruled his death was accidental and plans to send a report to Apple about taking action to prevent future deaths.
Assistant coroner Dr Sean Cummings, who conducted the inquest at West London Coroner's Court on Wednesday, wrote a prevention of future death report to send to Apple.
Charity Electrical Safety First said the death highlighted some of the dangers of having electrical appliances around water.
Product safety manager Steve Curtler said people would not get electrocuted from a mobile appliance such as a laptop or mobile phone if it was not being charged.
However, connecting a mobile phone to a charger plugged into the mains electricity supply increases the risk of harm.
"Although the cable that is plugged into your phone is 5V, somewhere along the line it's plugged into the electricity supply and you're reliant on that cable and a transformer to make sure you don't get into contact with the main voltage.
"You're wet, which conducts electricity a lot better; you're in the bath with no clothes on, so skin resistance is less. You're vulnerable in the bathroom."
