http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10378874
World News
Lightning kills 5 children praying at cross
25.04.06 11.20am
MEXICO CITY - Five Mexican children were killed when a large metal cross
they were praying at was struck by lightning in central Mexico, local
media reported.
Five children between 9 and 16 years old died and several others
suffered burns when lightning struck a white-painted metal cross set on
a hill in the town of Santa Maria del Rio early on Sunday, according to
two newspaper reports.
"The lightning went straight into them and killed them instantly," local
Red Cross chief Eduardo Suarez told the daily El Norte.
Officials in the state of San Luis Potosi were not immediately available
to confirm the report, also in El Universal.
A photo showed charring on the cross' turquoise-painted cement base,
although the cross was still standing.
Several families had been participating in a midnight ceremony as part
of a local religious festival that centers around the cross.
Santa Maria del Rio calls itself the "cradle of the shawl" for the
traditional silk shawls that artisans have woven there since
pre-Hispanic times.
--
regards, Peter Bjørn Perlsø
http://liberterran.org