KIDAPAWAN CITY—A farmer was killed while his companion was injured when lightning struck a shanty where they took shelter during a heavy downpour on Saturday afternoon in Matalam, Cotabato, a village official said.
Matalam town’s Barangay Linao councilor Roland Dionio said Roberto Magbanua and Joebert Bacus, both residents of Sitio (sub-village) Bubungan of Barangay Linao, were tending the cornfields on Saturday when a heavy downpour forced them to take cover in their shanty to avoid getting wet.
“It was raining at that time. Both were resting in an open shanty when lightning struck them,” Dionio told reporters in Kidapawan City. “It was actually a shanty made of bamboo with tarpaulin as roofings,” he said.
He said the lightning was so powerful that it tore apart the roof of the open shanty, where the two victims took cover. Magbanua and Bacus sustained burns in their bodies and were immediately rushed to the nearby hospital in Antipas town, Cotabato.
But attending physicians pronounced Magbanua dead on arrival while Bacus was transferred to a hospital in Kidapawan City for medical attention.