A 33yearold woman died after being struck by lightning on La Boquilla Beach in Colombia. The tragedy occurred on Tuesday afternoon (14). She was rescued unconscious but did not survive after being electrocuted.
The Venezuelan Froilanis Maireth Rivas suffered a cardiac arrest and could not resist Photo: Internet reproduction
Venezuelan Froilanis Maireth Rivas suffered a cardiac arrest. Rescue workers tried to revive her for about 40 minutes but were unsuccessful.
A surveillance camera recorded the incident. The images show that the woman was standing at the edge of the water when she was electrocuted. A man who was near the victim also fell to the ground at the moment of the lightning strike, but soon tried to help him.
Tourist dies after being struck by lightning on a beach in Colombia Video: Internet replay
Lightning in Brazil
Brazil leads the world in lightning occurrence. Every year there are around 77.8 million discharges into the ground. The country ranks seventh in the world in the number of deaths caused by the phenomenon.
According to a survey by the INPE (National Institute for Space Research) a unit of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation 2,194 cases have already been registered this century; an average of 110 cases per year during this period.
SC is one of the states with the most cases
Santa Catarina is the third state in the country with the highest number of lightning strikes. According to Camila Levien, meteorological technician at Grupo ND, due to the geographical location.
“We are in an area where we still receive a flow of hot air from the Amazon due to the jet streams (wind currents) that act in the atmosphere. We also get a lot of cold from Argentina and polar air masses. The collision of these two masses favors the formation of clouds with a high electrical charge, which is why we have this higher rate of lightning strikes,” he explains.