Six children and a woman were killed by a single bolt of lightning as they sheltered in their thatched homestead in rural Zimbabwe, state media reported today.
"A bolt of lightning suddenly struck the bedroom and kitchen huts" in Bikita district in the southeast of the country on Monday, police spokeswoman Charity Charamba told The Herald.
"All the occupants in the two huts died on the spot."
The woman, named as Marian Nebvuma, was 32, while the children ranged in age from four to 11.
Lightning accompanying summer thunderstorms is responsible for several deaths each year in Zimbabwe.
