Fact Check: Does Video Show People Killed by Lightning Striking a Tree?

A horrifying video showing a bolt of lightning striking a tree during a storm with four people huddled underneath has gone viral. After the lighting strikes the tree, all four individuals fall to the ground within a few moments, seemingly unconscious, CCTV footage of the incident shows. But does the video show the individuals being killed by the lighting strike?

The Claim The CCTV footage has gone viral in the past couple of days after being posted to Twitter on August 10, 2022. The tweet has since racked up more than 240,000 likes, and has been retweeted more than 65,000 times. Some Twitter users in the replies to the viral post speculated that the video potentially shows people dying. (Warning: Graphic content) "And you decide to share people dying why ???" one Twitter user wrote in the comments. "Take this down. These people seem to have been killed, or at least severely injured," another Twitter user said.

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The Facts While the tweet that has gone viral was only posted two days ago, the footage actually originates from 2021, Newsweek Fact Check discovered. The clip shows an incident that occurred in March of that year in the northern Indian city of Gurugram, which is located just southwest of the capital New Delhi. The four men were taking shelter from heavy rain under the tree when a bolt of lighting struck it. The incident was captured by a CCTV camera. Three of the men fall to the ground instantly, while the fourth collapses a few moments later. According to officials cited by local media, all four men were injured and subsequently rushed to Medeor Hospital in Manesar—a town near Gurugram. A police spokesperson told The Indian Express at the time that one of the men, a 38-year-old identified as Ramprasad, passed away later that day after succumbing to his injuries. The other three men survived the incident. The odds of being struck by lightning are extremely low, but if you find yourself in a thunderstorm, sheltering under tree can increase your chances of being injured. In fact, sheltering underneath a tree is the second leading cause of lightning casualties, according to the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS). This is because trees are often among the tallest objects in a given area, making them good targets for lightning bolts. "When lightning strikes a tree, the charge doesn't penetrate deep into the ground, but rather spreads out along the ground surface in something called ground current," John Jensenius with the National Lightning Safety Council told Fox Weather.

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"That makes the entire area around a tree dangerous, and anyone standing under or near a tree is vulnerable to this potentially deadly ground current. In addition, for those standing within several feet of a tree, the lightning charge, or a portion of the charge, can jump from the tree directly to the person," he said. Only around 10 percent of people who are struck by lightning are killed, although the remaining survivors are often left with varying degrees of disability, according to the NWS. The most common cause of death as a result of lightning strike is cardiac arrest at the time of injury. However, some victims may survive the initial strike only to die from irreversible brain damage a few days later. The Ruling Half True (Missing context) The incident seen in the footage actually happened more than a year ago. While one individual shown in the video was indeed killed as a result of the lightning strike, he did not die immediately, passing away later in hospital. The other three survived. FACT CHECK BY NEWSWEEK