The bolt of electricity made a loud crack that sounded like an
explosion on a warm and overcast afternoon, witnesses said.
"I heard this crackle and there was this giant bolt of lightning
shooting across the sky and the loudest thunder I’ve ever heard,"
witness Joe Doro told KCAL-TV.
Victims were apparently in the water or very close to it when the
lightning struck, local officials told the broadcaster.
The eight survivors were hospitalized for treatment and observation
after the lightning hit near Ocean Front Walk facing the Pacific
Ocean, around 2:15 p.m. (2115 GMT), said Los Angeles Fire Department
spokeswoman Katherine Main.
A 20-year-old man taken to Marina Del Rey Hospital was later
pronounced dead, according to the Los Angeles county coroner's
department.
The cause of death was still being determined, a spokesman said. One
other person was in critical condition, Main said, adding that a
15-year-old was among the victims.
On rocky Catalina Island off the coast of nearby Long Beach, a
57-year-old man was injured after a lightning strike, the Los
Angeles County Sheriff's Department said.
The National Weather Service had predicted a chance of thunderstorms
around Southern California on Sunday, and lightning was also being
blamed for a power outage affecting about 300 customers in Redondo
Beach, some 12 miles (19 km) south of Venice.
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Lightning injuries or fatalities can occur during a direct strike or
after a current is passed through the ground or jumps from a taller
object, such as a tree, according to the National Weather Service.
Symptoms can range from cardiac arrest and injury to the nervous
system to muscle soreness, headache, and confusion.
(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere in Seattle; Additional reporting by
Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Scott Malone, Diane Craft,
Sandra Maler and Clarence Fernandez)
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