The players were taken to a hospital where 39-year-old Jose Huega de la Cruz Meza was pronounced dead. (Photo: Reuters)
During a football match in Peru, one player was killed and 5 injured after lightning struck the pitch.
According to the Washington Post, the incident took place in the city of Huanquio, Peru, where two local teams, Juventud Bellavista and Familia Chuca, were playing a football match.
In the video footage, 39-year-old Jose Huega de la Cruz Meza can be seen falling to the ground after being struck by lightning.
Apart from the deceased player, 40-year-old goalkeeper Juan Chuka Lacta was also severely burned by lightning.
Three other players, aged between 16 and 24, were also reported injured.
The injured players were taken by taxi to a hospital in Huanquio where De La Cruz was pronounced dead on arrival.
An official from the Jounin Civil Defense Agency told The Associated Press that de la Cruz was wearing a metal bracelet on his wrist that acted ‘like a magnet’ during the lightning strike.
The stadium called Koto Koto, where the match was being played, is built on a high ground. The Peruvian city of Huanquio is 10,659 feet above sea level, where fatal lightning strikes are not uncommon.
Can lightning actually strike a person by wearing metal objects?
According to a research by Taylor & Francis, wearing a metal object can prevent lightning from striking you directly.
But since you have a metal object, the side flash of lightning can definitely be directed towards the person. Say you were struck by lightning and had a metal object within a certain radius around you, it could have serious effects.
What happens to the human body when lightning strikes?
According to Tech Insider, lightning doesn’t burn people completely, but it can be very dangerous.
A single lightning strike contains 1 to 10 billion joules of energy, which can power a 100 watt light bulb for 3 months continuously.
When such a large amount of current enters your body, it creates a short circuit of electrical signals in the body that can affect your brain, heart and lungs.
However, a person who gets electrocuted can have a heart attack, seizure, brain injury, spinal injury and amnesia.
Electricity is not the only problem here, but the heat generated by it can also be fatal. Temperatures around lightning can reach 53,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 5 times the temperature of the Sun.
When the atmosphere around lightning is heated to such an extent, a shock wave is created in the air which we can hear as lightning.
This shock wave has the same effect on a person within 30 meters as a 5 kg TNT bomb.
How is lightning protection possible?
Now the question is how to avoid lightning. The simple solution is to always be aware of the weather conditions and avoid leaving the house.
If you are outside, avoid open fields, standing power poles, trees and tall objects and run to a safe place.
