Strike in capital

A 21-year-old woman died and three women fell unconscious after they were struck by lightning on Sunday while walking along railway tracks in Phnom Penh’s Dangkor district, police officials said yesterday.

A district police official, who declined to be named, said that the women were workers at Sky High garment factory in Dangkor district.

“They were walking along the railway and the woman who died was talking on the phone and the other three accompanied her,” he said.

District deputy police chief Chuop Sok Heng declined to comment yesterday.

In a separate case, a 37-year-old woman died on Sunday after she was hit by lightning in Kampot province’s Teuk Chhou district. Sang Sophy, district deputy police chief, said that Sum Ra was struck by lightning as she walked her cow from her house to eat grass by a nearby rice field. “This is the first lightning [related death] in my district this year,” he said.

Keo Vy, cabinet chief at the National Committee for Disaster Management, said yesterday that lightning had killed 58 people and injured 53 so far this year, compared with 34 deaths caused by lightning over the same period last year.