3 killed after lightning struck 9 students playing football in Anambra

Three students were killed after lightning struck nine senior secondary school (SS3) students in Awka South LGA of Anambra on Saturday.

NAN quoted a witness to have said that the lightning struck nine male students who were playing football with their peers on the school’s pitch barefooted.

“The students were practicing on the football pitch with their coach preparatory to a football tournament,” the source said.

“The coach had ended the training session before rain started, but some of the students stayed behind to continue playing football.

“Lightning, accompanied by claps of thunderstorm suddenly enveloped the area and the boys were struck in the process.

“A teacher heard the students screaming and running. He ran to the field and saw at least nine students trembling and jerking on the turf.

“That was when he raised the alarm and people gathered to help. The boys were immediately rushed to the school clinic, from where they were taken to hospital in Awka.

“Six of the nine boys were resuscitated and are currently receiving treatment, but three did not survive. Their parents have been contacted.”

Hope Egwu, a resident told NAN that news of the accident went around on Sunday, adding that everyone had been held spellbound.

At the hospital in Awka, parents and sympathisers trooped into the ward where the survivors were receiving treatment.

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

“As of now, parents of two of the dead boys have taken the corpses away, while one is still in the mortuary,” the medical practitioner was quoted to have said.

“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 minimised.

When contacted, Tochukwu Ikenga, the police spokesman in Anambra, said the incident had not been reported to the law enforcement agency.

Speaking on the incident, Chukwudi Okani, a professor and consultant pathologist at the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital, Awka, said it was a natural disaster and not spiritual.

Okani said 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.

Peter Obi, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), also took to social media to mourn the students.

“I am greatly saddened by the unfortunate natural disaster that happened at Tansi International College, Awka this weekend,” he wrote on X.

“It was reported that 9 students of the College were struck by thunder, on Saturday, November 4, during a rainstorm.

“I am greatly saddened by the unfortunate natural disaster that happened at Tansi International College, Awka this weekend. It was reported that 9 students of the College were struck by thunder, on Saturday, November 4, during a rainstorm.