It’s Actually True…No Really!

Every week I am going to feature a story of a tale so unheard and bizarre that it's almost unbelievable. These stories will be come from reputable sources I find across the internet and with me personally checking the validity as well.

This rarity took place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo during a soccer match between the villages of Bena Tshadi & Basangana.

In 1998, lightning actually killed all eleven members of the visiting team, while all of Basangana's players were spared with severe burns at worst! The tragedy caused many locals to blame the event on some sort of sorcery or witchcraft!  After all, it was the visiting team this happened to.

The athletes from [the home team] Basanga curiously came out of this catastrophe unscathed.

Truth of the matter though when you put science into it the reasoning was simple.  The visiting team were wearing metal spikes and the home team were sporting plastic spikes.  The field was very wet that day and we all know how electricity and metal interact with each other.

But this isn't so "rare" actually.

This wasn’t the first time a soccer game has ended due to lightning killing everybody – it happened, believe it or not, the same weekend in Johannesburg South Africa where half of the players from both teams (Jomo Cosmos and Moroka Swallows) dropped dead.