{LIGHTNING in Burundi killed seven high school students and wounded 51 others when it struck a classroom where they were sheltering from a ferocious storm, officials said Saturday. }
“This was an exceptional disaster that hit not only our town, but also other areas of the country, when we should be in the dry season,” said Prudence Kabura, a local government official in Nyanza-Lac, some 150 kilometres south of the capital Bujumbura, of the storm on Friday.
As many as 500 houses were also destroyed by the heavy rains, he added.
The tragedy follows a series of fatal lightning strikes in recent days.
Last week lightning killed four people and wounded nine others as they sheltered inside a small church in eastern Burundi, local official Egide Ndikuriyo said.
The following day, two people guarding a herd of cows were also struck by lightning, while houses and crops were damaged by the heavy rains, Ndikuriyo added, noting the unseasonal nature of the storms.
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