Lightning bolt kills 27 cows on Galician farm
Farmers in the small town of Rodeiro left stunned as lightning strike wipes out almost entire herd
A lightning strike has killed 27 cows on a farm in Rodeiro, a small town in the province of Pontevedra, Galicia, in what locals are describing as a freak and devastating accident.The incident happened on the afternoon of Sunday May 18, as a wave of intense storms hit the region. According to the president of the O Rodo cooperative, which owns the farm, the cows were grazing in a nearby meadow when the storm began to build.
Farm staff quickly headed out to guide the herd back to safety. But as the animals passed under a transformer pole, a lightning bolt struck the structure, sending a powerful electric discharge through the ground beneath them. In an instant, 27 of the 30 cows dropped dead.
An explosion echoed across the field at the moment of impact. Fortunately, the farm owner — who was driving a tractor just ahead of the animals — and a female worker walking behind, were both unharmed.
“It all happened so fast,” a source said. “One moment they were walking, the next there was a blast and they were gone.”
Only three cows survived, leaving the farm reeling from a huge and sudden loss.
It is not the first time livestock in Galicia have been hit. In 2017, two cows were killed by lightning in Láncara, Lugo, and a similar incident occurred in A Fonsagrada in 2020.
The incident in Rodeiro comes during an exceptionally active storm period in the region, with more than 2,000 lightning strikes recorded across Galicia in the last 24 hours alone. The most intense activity occurred between 2.00pm and 8.00pm on Sunday.
Image:Frank Cone/Pexels
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