GUN FIRED BY LIGHTING

Taranaki Daily News, 11 May 1929, Page 12

GUN FIRED BY LIGHTING

WOMAN SERIOUSLY WOUNDED SHOT IN ARM, CHEST AND NECK.' REMARKABLE ACCIDENT AT OKATO. Ag the result of a gun accident at Okato last night, attended by circumstances that are probably unique, Mrs. Albert Hau, a Maori woman, was reported to be in & very critical condition. A double-barrelled fowling piece was lying on its side on a table, the lower barrel, at least, being loaded and the trigger cocked. Mrs. Hau was cooking at a stove 18 feet away. About 5.30 p.m. there was a vivid lightning flash followed almost instant..ncously by a deafening thunderclap over the house. Simultaneously with the electrical disturbance the gun exploded and the woman wtuj terribly shot in one arm, the neck and chest. . j • Dr. D. E.\ Brown, of New Plymouth, waa summoned immediately but found Mrs. Hau was wounded "so badly that she could not be removed to the hospital. She vm bleeding from the lungs. Late last night .her" condition was reported as serious. " Mrs. Hau is about 30 years of age. The boards on tie table on which the gun was resting were singed when the discharge occurred.