Lightning struck dead 11 Colombians and injured 15 others during a meeting of indigenous Wiwa spiritual leaders in a remote mountainous area in the country´s north, the government said Monday.
The Wiwa, who were gathered at a community in the isolated Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta range in Magdalena department, were killed by “an electrical charge from a lightning bolt,” the national ombudsman´s office said.
An army battalion operating in the region transported the injured, who were taken to various health facilities in the Caribbean city of Santa Marta, a five-hour drive away.