DEATH BY LIGHTNING

Taranaki Daily News, 24 December 1935, Page 11

DEATH BY LIGHTNING

BOY KILLED IN AUSTRALIA. CHURCH TORN TO MATCHWOOD. By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. •■' • Brisbane, Dec. 21. A six-year-old boy was killed by lightning, suburban church was smashed to matchwood and many houses were wrecked ot severely damaged in. a succession of violent storms that swept over the- Brisbane district. The wind reached a velocity of 55- miles an hour and fireballs were reported in some areas. George Rosenlund, aged six, was standing under a wireless aerial when a flash of lightning shattered the aerial, struck the boy dead, set fire to the house and threw a sewing machine 10 feet across a room. At Belmont four houses were lifted from their supports and the sleeping occupants hurled from their beds. A number of other people were injured when walls crashed. .. . . At Salisbury a fireball uprooted almost 50 trees, levelled fencing, and disorganised telephone lines. The cyclonic disturbance also caused heavy damage in the Rockhampton district. '