Lightning Kills 323 Reindeers In Norway

Norwegian Environment Agency has released some images that show corpses of hundreds of reindeer in a treeless landscape.

The agency said Friday’s deadliest lightening has killed 323 reindeer in a private hunting area of the Hardangervidda mountain plateau in central southern Norway.

The officials said they are not sure what to do with the bodies that included 70 young reindeer too.

Meanwhile, samples of the carcasses have been sent to the veterinary institute to find out the exact cause of the animals death.

Official Kjartan Knutsen added, “There were very strong storms in the area on Friday. The animals stay close together in bad weather and these ones were hit by lightning.”

Death by lightning is not unusual and Guinness World Records writes such worst disaster occurred in 1971 when a commercial airplane was struck in Peru, killing 91 people.

National Weather Service reveals in 2016 32 people have been killed by lightning in the US and since 2006 about 350 deaths have occurred.

The most common victims in lightning are cattle and sheep. In 2005 a single lightning bolt killed 68 Jersey cows in Australia and this was the largest recorded number of livestock killed.

Experts say ground currents are responsible for most of the lightning deaths in animals as well as people. The electricity enters the body and passes through the nervous system as well as nerves. It stops the heart too.