MAWANELLA : At least 25 persons, including children admitted to the Mawanella Hospital after they were struck by lightning during final rites of a funeral at Beminiwatte in Mawanella, the area police said.
An eye witness to the incident, a religious scholar, told Colombo Times that simply the people who came for the funeral were thrown off all over. The lightning first struck a coconut tree and later people did not know what really happened.
Injured people were taken to the Mawanell hospital in ambulances and three-wheelers.
The area parliamentarian and former minister Kabeer Hashim came to spot and helped the people rush to the hospital.