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Moment lighting strike kills Peruvian soccer player, injures 4 others, caught on video
A soccer player was struck by lightning during a match over the weekend in Peru, killing him and wounding four other players in a horrific incident caught on a live video stream of the game. The lightning bolt struck José Hugo De la Cruz Meza, 39, a defender for the Chocca Family team, as players and referees were walking off the field due to worsening weather at the Coto Coto stadium near the city of Huancayo on Sunday, according to Peru’s state-run Andina news agency.
De la Cruz died immediately from the strike, Peruvian news outlets reported, before he was taken to a local hospital. The team’s goalkeeper Juan Chocca Llacta, De la Cruz’s cousin, was left in serious condition, and three other players sustained burns.
The video of the strike shows the players walking calmly off the field when a flash of light briefly engulfs Meza.
He and about half of a dozen other players immediately fall over. Llacta, who was walking right next to Meza, and five other players who were slightly farther away, can be seen moving again quickly, with some appearing to roll around in pain, but the clip does not show De la Cruz move again.
Video from after the match, which was ended after the lighting strike about 20 minutes into play, showed people looking at scorch marks on the grass where the lightning struck.
Llacta, who survived his serious injuries, told Peru’s Daily Mail newspaper on Monday that they were walking off the field together with their arms around one another just before the lightning strike.
“I let go of him, we took three steps and the lightning hit us,” he was quoted as saying. “… I felt a flash of light in my head and my mind went blank, and then I don’t remember anything else. I regained consciousness in the hospital. I thank God for giving me a chance at life. I’m surprised I am alive.”
According to the newspaper, De la Cruz’s family held a wake for him in his hometown near Huancayo, putting his fire-scorched uniform on display next to his coffin.
The Daily Mail reported his family was seeking financial support from local authorities to help cover the expense of the funeral, and for the future, as his wife has been left to support three young children on her own.
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Nevada live election results for the 2024 presidential race
What to know about Nevada
Nevada, with an economy largely based around tourism and hospitality surrounding Las Vegas, is home to a significant working class population. Both Trump and Harris announced no-tax-on-tips policies in Nevada earlier this year, underscoring the dominance of service industry workers in the Silver State.
Although a Republican presidential candidate hasn’t won Nevada since 2004, Democrats’ margin of victory has decreased in recent years. The Silver State’s economy, dependent on the hospitality industry, was among the most impacted by pandemic closures in 2020, leading to a much slower recovery than in other states, and spurring frustration with Democrat-led policies.
In 2022, Republicans flipped the governor’s mansion, and the state was home to the closest Senate race in the country, suggesting that in 2024, it could be seriously in play for Republicans even at the presidential level. But Nevada, a state with high population turnover, has historically posed polling difficulties. And the largest voting bloc — more than 30% of voters — are registered as nonpartisan in 2024.
How Nevada voted in 2016 and 2020
All but two counties backed Trump in the last election — but those two Democrat-voting counties, home to Las Vegas and Reno, make up the bulk of the state’s population. President Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 election by more than 33,000 votes, and Hillary Clinton won the state in 2016, besting Trump by just over 27,000 votes.
Major races in Nevada
Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen and Republican Sam Brown are facing off in a key Senate race in Nevada as Democrats fight to hold onto control of the chamber. Brown, a 40-year-old businessman and former Army captain who lost the 2022 Republican Senate primary, is aiming to unseat Rosen in her first reelection bid and deliver the GOP its first Senate seat win in the Silver State since 2012.