Lightning Kills Three Students, Injures Six Others in Anambra

Lightning has killed three Senior Secondary School (SS3) students in Awka, Anambra State capital.

The students were among the nine students struck by the lightning, while they were playing football in their school’s pitch on Saturday.

Six of the nine boys who were injured and resuscitated, are currently receiving treatment.

Eye witnesses said the students and their peers, were practicing on the football pitch with their coach preparatory to a football tournament.

After the coach had ended the training session before rain started, some of the students stayed behind to continue playing football, when lightning, accompanied by claps of thunderstorm suddenly enveloped the area.

Read Also:

69 Missing, 29 Died As Rescue Ends In Capsized Boat in Benue River in Taraba

The nine boys struck by lightning were immediately rushed to the school clinic, from where they were taken to hospital in Awka.

A medical doctor in the hospital confirmed that three out of the nine boys were brought into the hospital dead, but six others were revived.

The eye witness further said: “As of now, parents of two of the dead boys have taken the corpses away, while one is still in the mortuary.
“It is sad that they were playing on the field barefooted. If they had boots on, the impact of the lightning would probably have been minimized,’’
A Consultant Pathologist at the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital, Awka, Prof Chukwudi Okani said it was a natural disaster.
According to Okani, lightning could kill by electrocution through direct strike, side splash or ground current strike.

He advised that people should install thunder arrestors in their buildings to stave off electrical currents in the event of lightning.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, DSP Tochukwu Ikenga, said the incident had not been reported to the police.