Lightning struck down and killed two Australians and three Thais during a school trip to a waterfall in northeastern Thailand as torrential rain continued to batter Thailand and Vietnam.
Flash floods and landslides have killed 50 people in Vietname and Thailand, swept away thousands of homes and inundated farms.
Australian teacher Greg Crombie, 41, and two Thai girls aged 14 and 17 died instantly when a bolt of lightning hit the tree they were sheltering under after the storm began. Crombie is leading the group from Winthrop Baptist College, a secondary school in Perth.
One of the Australian students – 16-year-old Thomas McGuiness – and a 16-year-old Thai girl died later in hospital, police and hospital staff said. The incident happened at a waterfall in Mukdahan province, 600 kilometres northeast of Bangkok.
"The first bolt of lightning struck and 30 people retreated from the waterfall and sought shelter under a big tree nearby and bought some food to eat. The second bolt struck the tree," police captain Boonsri Dejchai said.
The Australian and Thai secondary students and teachers were visiting the waterfall as part of a cultural exchange program, police said.
An Australian foreign ministry spokesman said the group included 11 Australian students – three of whom were injured by the lightning – in their final year of high school.
In Vietnam, the death toll from typhoon Hagupit, which struck the Philippines, Hong Kong and the mainland last week, has jumped to 32 with another five people missing. Thousands of homes have been washed away or destroyed by heavy rains and the landslides in northern Vietnam, the government's storm and flood prevention committee said.
The death toll from flooding throughout Thailand has risen to 18, while nearly 190,000 people have fallen sick. Twenty-four of Thailand's 76 provinces have been deluged since 11 September, and the health ministry said that 18 people were swept away and drowned.
The Standard, 29 September 2008
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