Screen Grab from Facebook/Moody County Sheriff鈥檚 Office
A bolt of lightning killed a herd of 19 cows on Monday night (Tuesday in Manila) in Hallsville, Texas, USA.
The cattle, which were sheltering under a tree during a storm, became the third herd of animals in a week to be electrocuted by a freak lightning accident.
鈥淎ll of a sudden, a lightning bolt came down and the cows just fell,鈥� witness Victor Benson said in a Telegraph report.听 鈥淚n the blink of an eye a lightning bolt, and there was lightning everywhere, but just one (bolt) and it was over.鈥�
Benson added that some of the cows survived the hit and managed to get up and stumble away, but most were killed outright.
The herd鈥檚 owner, Ashley Anderson, meanwhile, described the incident as 鈥渟urreal.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 just a freak thing, I mean they were just staying out of the rain,鈥� she said.听鈥淭here鈥檚 really, to my knowledge, nothing you can do to prevent this.鈥�
The dead animals were given to neighbors for meat, while a mark remains on the tree where the bolt hit, the report said. The grotesque incident resulted in a total loss of $45,000 (P2.1 million) for Anderson.
The latest misfortune comes just a day after hundreds of reindeer were wiped out during a storm in the Hardangervidda region of听Norway.
READ:听More than 300 reindeer killed by lightning in Norway
Thirty-eight sheep were also electrocuted during a storm in India last week. 听Khristian Ibarrola