LONDON (Reuters) - Two women were killed by a bolt of lightning
in London's Hyde Park when their underwired bras acted as
conductors, a coroner said.
"I think this was a tragic case, a pure act of God," coroner
Paul Knapman told an inquest into the deaths. He recorded a
verdict of death by misadventure.
"This is only the second time in my experience of 50,000 deaths
where lightning has struck the metal in a bra causing death,
but I do not wish to over emphasize any significance," the
coroner said.
The two women, Anuban Bell, 24, and Sunee Whitworth, 39, had
been sheltering under a tree in the park during a thunderstorm.
Pathologist Dr Iain West said both women were wearing
underwired bras and had been left with burn marks on their
chests from the electrical current that passed through their
bodies. Death would have been instant, he said.
Both women were originally from Thailand but were living in
London and had been on a shopping trip when the storm struck.
The bodies were not discovered until the following day because
passers-by thought they were vagrants.
