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Fourteen people mostly children were killed in a lightning strike in a refugee camp in northern Uganda, police said Sunday.
The incident happened Saturday in the remote district of Lamwo. Police spokesman Kituuma Rusoke said 34 other people were injured. The victims have not yet been identified, he said.
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The residents of the Palabek settlement camp, which primarily houses refugees from South Sudan, had been attending a prayer service in the makeshift metallic structure when the lighting struck.
Kituuma Rusoke, spokesperson for Uganda Police, told Newsmen that the adult killed on Saturday was 21 years old. Mr Rusoke did not reveal the exact ages of the children who died.
Deadly lightning is commonly reported in this East African country during the wet seasons. Rusoke said there was no report of fire breaking out following the strike.
The refugee camp, home to more than 50,000 people, primarily houses refugees from South Sudan.
Deadly lightning is commonly reported in the East African country during the wet seasons.
Four years ago, ten children were killed by lightning in the north-western Uganda city of Arua after sheltering in a hut during a storm.
The children were playing football when heavy rain forced them to take a break in a nearby grass-thatched structure which was struck by lightning.
Nine children, aged 13 to 15, were killed on the spot while another died on the way to hospital.
Three survivors are receiving treatment at the regional hospital.
This is the worst accident of its kind in Uganda since 2011, when 18 children were killed at a school in the mid-western region.
That year, 28 people also died from lightning strikes in a single week.
In February this year, four rare mountain gorillas were killed after being hit by lightning.
