Lightning Kills An Entire Football Team.

FOOTBALL FANS in the central African state of
Congo were hurling accusations of
witchcraft at each other yesterday after a
freak blast of lightning struck dead an entire
team on the playing field while their
opponents were left completely untouched.
The bizarre blow by the weather to all 11
members of the football team was reported
in the daily newspaper L'Avenir in Kinshasa,
the capital of Congo.
"Lightning killed at a stroke 11 young
people aged between 20 and 35 years
during a football match," the newspaper
reported . It went on to say that 30 other
people had received burns at the weekend
match, held in the eastern province of Kasai.
"The athletes from Basanga [the home team]
curiously came out of this catastrophe
unscathed."
The suspicion that the black arts might be
involved arose firstly because the opposing
team emerged unharmed and then again
because the score at the time was a
delicately balanced one all.
"The exact nature of the lightning has
divided the population in this region which
is known for its use of fetishes in football,"
the newspaper commented.
Much of the detail about the match remains
obscure as the Congo - officially known as
the Democratic Republic of Congo - remains
stricken by civil war between the
government of Laurent Kabila and rebel
forces, backed by neighbouring Rwanda, in
the east of the country.
Witchcraft is often blamed for adverse
natural phenomena throughout western
and central Africa. It is relatively frequent for
football teams to hire witchdoctors to place
hexes on their opponents.
In a similar, though less deadly incident in
South Africa over the weekend, six players
from a local team were hurt when lightning
struck the playing field during a
thunderstorm.