Five migrant workers were dead and three were injured Monday
afternoon after lightning struck their shanty in Weidi Town of
Luoding City in south China's Guangdong Province, sources with the Luoding
city government said Tuesday.
The eight migrant workers were in their workplace accommodation
in the Meiziling industrial zone at about 3:00 PM Monday when the
lightning struck. Five were knocked unconscious and died shortly
after. The three injured workers were treated at a local clinic.
Their lives are not in danger.
All the eight are from southwest China's Yunnan Province.
The provincial weather department and workplace safety
supervision bureau had sent staff to the accident site for
investigations.
Fifty-six people have been killed by lightning in China in the
first five months of the year. Last year lightning was blamed for
the deaths of 717 people and caused injuries to 640 people.
Last month, lightning killed seven pupils and injured 44 others
in a village school in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality.
(Xinhua News Agency June 5, 2007)