A videographer shooting a karaoke musical video in a storm was struck by lightning and killed, falling unconscious into a pond in Phnom Penh’s Prek Pnov district, a police official said on Thursday.
About 20 people were performing in the rain in Ponhea Poan commune on Wednesday evening when Moeun Vanna was hit by lightning, district police chief Chhin Kim Thuy said.
Another member of the crew rushed to pull the 32-year-old from the pond and he was transferred to Royal Rattanak Hospital, where he died at about 8 p.m., Mr. Kim Thuy said.
The crew from Town Productions was nearly finished with the day’s shoot when the storm approached and didn’t want to return the next day, so continued in the worsening weather, commune police chief Nuon Sambath said.
A man who answered the telephone at Town Productions declined to comment, except to say the videographer was not an employee.
So far this year, 24 people have been killed by lightning strikes, according to the National Committee for Disaster Management, compared to eight last year.