Two women were killed and a third injured when lightning struck three relatives working in a paddy field in the Anuradhapura district on Tuesday.
The three were working their field when rain set in and they took shelter under a nearby tree. They were struck between 12.30pm and 1.00pm, Hiru News reported.
The women who died were 61 and 26 years old. The third woman was transferred to Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital for further treatment.
Two accounts of where they died
The two filings differ on a detail. Hiru reports that all three were admitted immediately to Rambewa Divisional Hospital, and that two were pronounced dead there. The Daily Mirror reports that two “were killed on the spot.”
The outlets also place the incident differently. Hiru names the Nambadagaswewa area as the site of the strike, with Rambewa as the hospital they were taken to; the Daily Mirror describes the paddy field as being “in the Rabewa area.” Neither account names the victims, and no police division is cited in either.
A warning issued after the deaths
The Department of Meteorology issued a statement at about 4.30pm — some three and a half hours after the strike — warning of heavy rain over the following 36 hours.
Falls of more than 100mm are possible at some places in the Western, Sabaragamuwa, North Western and Northern provinces and in the Anuradhapura district, the department said. It asked the public to take steps to reduce the dangers posed by the temporary strong winds and lightning that can accompany thundershowers.
The warning does not refer to the Anuradhapura deaths, and was issued after them. But it covers the same district, and the circumstances it describes are the circumstances of this strike: open paddy land during a thundershower.
Lightning deaths among farm workers in Anuradhapura’s paddy districts recur. In April this desk reported two farmers killed in their fields at Vijithapura, in the same district, also after heavy rain.
Not reported
Neither filing says whether the women were related to one another beyond Hiru’s description of the three as relatives, nor whether the surviving woman’s condition is critical. Neither gives a police or hospital source by name. No national figure for lightning deaths this year is given in either report, and the Met Department’s statement does not say when the current spell of thundery weather is expected to ease beyond the 36-hour window.
