Lightning Kills 11 Indigenous in Remote Colombia

Local Editor

Lightning struck dead 11 Colombians and injured 15 others during a meeting of indigenous Wiwa spiritual leaders in a remote mountainous area in the country’s north, the government said Monday.

The Wiwa, who were gathered at a community in the isolated Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta range in Magdalena department, were killed by "an electrical charge from a lightning bolt," the national ombudsman’s office said.

"Tribal leaders were meeting at the moment when this natural phenomenon took place," the office, charged with protecting Colombia’s human rights, said.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team