Thirty-one bodyguards of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff were injured after they were struck by lightning during a military drill on Monday.
The commandos from the presidential security detail were practising outdoors when the incident took place. Many of the bodyguards were knocked unconscious and 26 are still hospitalised, Global Post reported.
Scientists in the past have raised concern that lightning in Brazil and other parts of Latin America has been on the rise and so have the casualties. The report noted that at least 98 people were killed in 2014 in Brazil after being struck by lightning.
Brazil is listed among the countries with one of the highest incidents of lightning strikes. Last year, the 100-foot-tall Christ the Redeemer statue that towers over Rio de Janeiro was hit by lightning.
A BBC report citing a study led by scientist Osmar Pinto Junior of Brazil's National Institute for Space Research, had noted that the city of Manaus, located in middle of the Amazon rainforest, has seen a 50% rise in lightning strikes in the past 30 years, reaching a current rate of 13.5 strikes per square km annually.
