A man and his father-in-law were struck dead by lightning on Tuesday evening while taking shelter from a storm in Banteay Meanchey’s Thma Puok district.

District police chief Ouk Sophat said the pair – Krer Phal, 30, and Yung Ya, 50 – had been tending to their fields when the downpour began.

They took shelter under a tree, where they set about repairing their homemade tractor before being fatally struck.

“They should have known that during the rain they should not go under a tree, and while they were there they repaired their tractor, which is metal. This is very dangerous,” Sophat said. “We went to examine the bodies; lightning was the cause of death.”

By the first week of May, the National Committee of Disaster Management was reporting that lightning fatalities for the year had already reached 15, more than double what they were for the same period in 2015.

Committee spokesman Keo Vy yesterday urged people to be careful.