Lightning kills two Chinese tourists

AFP: A lightning strike in central Sri Lanka killed two Chinese tourists and injured three others while they were outside during a thunderstorm, police said.

A bolt of lightning hit the mountainous area where the tourists were on a sightseeing tour in Haputale, a picturesque tea-growing region, police said.

“A Chinese man and a woman were killed and three other tourists were injured and we have rushed them to hospital,” a Police official in the area said by telephone. Authorities did not name the victims.

Sri Lanka is seeing an increase in the number of Chinese tourists visiting the island after it ended nearly four decades of ethnic strife in May 2009.