Haiti was plunged into mourning and Carnival festivities were cancelled after at least 16 people died when a high-voltage cable hit a parade float in the capital Port-au-Prince.
Another 78 people were injured in the accident as thousands watched, marring what is normally a joyful high point of the year in the impoverished Caribbean country.
Authorities cancelled the third and last day of the carnival celebrations on Tuesday and declared three days of mourning.
Along the Champ de Mars, the parade ground not far from the presidential palace where the accident took place, the bleachers - normally full of revellers - were empty.
"What happened is a tragedy," Prime Minister Evans Paul said.
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The float - carrying a popular rap group called the Barikad Crew - struck a power line overhead as it made its way through the Champ de Mars, electrocuting the dancers and musicians riding on it.
The group's star singer, who goes by the name "Fantom," was struck directly by the fallen cable and was in hospital, the website Haiti Press Network said.
Some of the injured were hurt in the ensuing crush of revellers who panicked upon seeing the accident.
Family members besieged a main hospital complex in the capital to find their loved ones as doctors struggled to treat those injured by the huge electrical shock. Others went to identify the dead.
Paul called on Haitians to pay homage to the dead later Tuesday by dressing in white and marching silently at the Champ de Mars.
"Sharing in the grief of the families affected by this drama, the government has decided to suspend all carnival festivities across the country," his office said in a statement.
The period of national mourning will formally begin Wednesday, with flags to be flown at half-mast on all public buildings.
National funerals were to take place on Saturday.
The area where the accident occurred has been a focal point of Haiti's turbulent modern history - a witness to dictatorships, revolutions and in 2010 a devastating magnitude 7.0 earthquake that killed more than 300,000 people.
The festivities had begun on Sunday with the theme "Nou Tout Se Ayiti" - Creole for "We are all Haiti."
