Lightning Kills Three SS3 Students While Playing Football

Three Senior Secondary School (SS3) pupils were murdered by lightning in Anambra State’s Awka South Local Government Area.

According to an eyewitness, on Saturday, November 4, 2023, lightning struck nine male pupils who were barefootedly playing football with their peers on the school’s pitch.

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

“The coach had ended the training session before the 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 a 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,’’ the witness told NAN.

Mrs Hope Egwu, a resident, claimed the disaster was widely publicized on Sunday.

Parents and sympathizers flocked to the ward where the survivors were being treated at the Awka hospital.

According to a doctor who requested anonymity, three of the nine youngsters were taken into the hospital dead, but six others were resuscitated.

“As of now, the 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 minimised,’’ he said.

Prof. Chukwudi Okani, Consultant Pathologist at the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital in Awka, described the tragedy as a natural disaster rather than a spiritual disaster.

According to Okani, lightning can kill by electrocution via direct strike, side splash, or ground current hit.

He recommended people to put thunder arrestors in their buildings to prevent electrical current from flowing in the case of a lightning strike.