The Pontevedra Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (MDRRMO) released initial results into last week’s deadly lightning strike over the weekend, which claimed the lives of four people and injured four others.

In a radio interview, MDRRMO head Fairy Grace Andrico said the lightning strike was due to a handheld transistor radio, which was being carried by 37-year-old Glen Gatual, one of the four fatalities.

Andrico said all the victims were working in a sugarcane field when a sudden downpour occurred, prompting the victims to seek shelter in a waiting shed.

The victims were also reported to have been sitting beside each other when the lightning strike took place.

She also noted, the four injured individuals were transferred to the La Carlota City District Hospital following the incident with all of them currently in stable condition.

She also confirmed there was another person injured in a separate lightning strike in the town’s Barangay Antipolo. That individual is also reported to be in stable condition after being rushed to the hospital./DGB, WDJ