Twenty-six people were killed on Wednesday when an overhead high-voltage cable fell into a water-filled ditch at a market in DR Congo's capital Kinshasa, local authorities said, giving an early toll.

"The cable snapped and the live end of it fell into a ditch that was filled with water after morning rain. At present, 26 people have died from electrocution," Charles Mbutamuntu, the spokesman for the Kinshasa provincial government, told AFP.