Two 13-Year-Old Girls Killed After Getting Hit By Lightning While Swimming At Popular Mexican Beach
Two 13-year-old girls were killed at a popular tourist beach on the southeast coast of Mexico after being struck by lightning as they swam in the sea. The girls were killed instantly when a storm suddenly began to build over the waters at Carmen beach, in the municipality of Solidaridad, in the south-east Mexican state of Quintana Roo. A third girl was also in the water, but was rushed to the hospital and eventually released. Meteorologists say a quick-building cloud formation was to blame in the death of the girls.
The Daily Mail reports that three young teens were swimming at Carmen beach in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo when they were struck by lightning. Two of the girls died immediately and a third was rushed to the hospital. The three victims all attended the same school and went to the tourist beach together to swim. Victim Paula Cantoral Cordova, 13, and Andrea Hernandez Sandoval, 13, would die from the lightning strike, while 13-year-old Maria Eugenia Aceves Pulido was rushed to the hospital.
Lightning killed two teenagers in Playa del Carmen http://t.co/CrqWuKwVaj pic.twitter.com/9C1aFHWZ7U
— The Yucatan Times (@theyucatantimes) August 31, 2015
According to witnesses, some large storm clouds began to build over the beach as the girls were swimming in the water. Suddenly, a flash and loud bang was heard and two of the teens were dead in the water. Emergency responders were called to the scene and one of the victims was rushed to a nearby hospital. The bodies of the two other girls, which died instantly from the lightning strike, were removed from the water as police roped off the area with caution tape. According to the Yucatan Times, the responders on the scene were from the Red Cross and immediately removed all three girls from the water. However, they say two of the girls were already deceased despite their immediate response to the scene. It was noted that the third surviving teen, Pulido, was kept for 12 hours at the hospital for observation. She suffered minor burns and was treated for shock. Though the meteorologists in the area say the storms came on suddenly, it seems that lightning at Playa del Carmen is not unusual.
#Calm before the #storm #thunder #lightning #butitsstillhot @ Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo https://t.co/WWLd9xexpm
— Tiffany Ann Ferguson (@tiffannferg) August 5, 2015
#RivieraMaya #PlayaDelCarmen #datingdad: Blinding #lightning, followed by sky-cracking, bulletshots of #thunder th… https://t.co/75ZBVyWmpL
— Playa Del Carmen (@playadelcarmenx) August 10, 2015
Reports initially indicated that all three girls died; however, the reports were later amended to note the survival of the third girl.
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