Four girls of Protea Glen school in Soweto were walking to school on Monday, when they were hit by lightning. One of them,
Bertha Ncube (16), died later in the hospital.
The next afternoon, when it started raning, nine boys of the King Edward VII school were trying to pull the cover over the cricket pitch when they too were struck by lightning.
The boys who were standing upright were injured worse than the ones who were pulling the covers in a bent position.
The hearts of two of the boys,
Jayden Broodryk and Mphetho Bidli, stopped and a paramedic saved their lives with mouth to mouth resusitation.
Jayden's clothes, right down to his underwear, was burned to shreds, and his shoes had exploded off his feet.
The
SA Weather Service says that more than 260 people are killed by lightning in South Africa each year.
