Lightning kills one, leaves two others injured in Nkhatabay

Lightning has claimed the life of a woman identified as 38 year-old Ratina Banda and has left two other people severely injured in Malawi’s northern region district of Nkhatabay.

Police publicist for the district, Sergeant Ignatius Esau has since confirmed the tragedy and has identified one of the other two victims as 33 year-old Ulemu Banda.

According to Esau, particulars of the remaining one are not yet indicated but they both hail from Chibuya village, traditional authority Fukamapiri in Nkhatabay Information gathered by this publication shows that the three met their fate when they were farming in their family garden near Dombola river in the district.

It is believed that in the midst of their farming, heavy rains accompanied by thunder and lightning abruptly began and before they could run for shelter, lightning had already struck all of them into a coma.

“People who saw this happening rushed to the scene and took them to Kande health center where the woman was pronounced dead upon arrival,” said the source.

Postmortem results conducted on the deceased at Kande hospital showed that her death was due to lightning shock. After the remaining two were seen to be in a very critical condition, they were referred to Chintheche health center for advanced medical attention.

However, Malawi24 could not independently establish the condition in which the two are but reports suggests that they were responding to treatment.