From staff reports

A City of Vicksburg employee was injured this morning when an apparent electrical current hit the equipment he was operating near the Vicksburg Convention Center,

The blast momentarily cut electricity to 1,260 Entergy customers, a spokesman said.

Ki Miles, director of the city’s Safety Department, said William Pierce, an employee of the Street Department, was controlling the end of a pouring funnel from a truck when the equipment apparently got near an electrical wire and shocked him.

Pierce was conscious and talking a little when taken by Vicksburg Fire Department ambulance to River Region Medical Center, Chief Keith Rogers said.

Vicksburg Convention Center executive director Larry Gawronski said he saw the accident.

“We heard this buzz and it shook the whole building,” he said. “It was like a lightning rod all the way down.”

Witnesses said Pierce appeared to be holding a rope at the end of the concrete truck boom when he was shocked and knocked to the ground.

The city crews were at the Mulberry Street site pouring concrete for a new parking lot.