Police and Thalang Hospital staff arrived at the scene to find the man, named only as Dang, 40, unconscious but just breathing. There was a burn on his belly. Despite their best efforts, he died soon after.
A friend told police that Mr Dang, while answering the call of nature, touched the barbed wire with his belly, and received a lethal jolt of power.
It was later discovered that the electricity had leaked from a nearby tangle of power lines.