A man killed after being struck by lightning is the brother of a teenage footballer who survived a horrific crash from a bridge which left four teammates and their trainer dead.
Teenager Ruan Carvalho survived the tragedy on 30th January when the coach he was travelling with his teammates plummeted more than 30 feet to the ground after smashing through a crash barrier in Alem Paraiba on 30th January.
Ruan and others from the Esporte Clube Vila Maria Helena had been on their way home from a cup-winning match and the four players died after their bus crashed off a bridge on the BR-116, in Alem Paraiba, on the border between Minas Gerais and Rio.
The bus had been heading to Duque de Caxias, where the football team is based when it crashed off the bridge and landed on its roof in a river when the driver lost control.
But the family’s joy at the survival of Ruan has been shattered with the news that his brother exactly 2 months later, on 30th March, was struck dead by lightning.
The dead man, Francoise Edgar Felipe Carvalho, was on his way home from work in Duque de Caxias when he was hit by the floodwaters and had grabbed on the pole to stop himself being swept away.
An autopsy has indicated that after he was struck by lightning, he was still alive but drowned after being swept away by floodwaters.
The mother of the two boys, Damiana Januario, said Ruan was devastated at the loss of his brother Francoise, 21, who was the oldest of seven children.
She said: “On the 30th Ruan lived, but two months later again on the 30th Francoise died. It was a blow, it is something we will never forget.”
She added that she had not yet been able to discuss it with her younger son Ruan, whose age was not given, as he was very depressed and locked himself in his bedroom. She said: “He knows, but he doesn’t want to talk. He is very down.”
She added that the tragedy was all the more marked because Francoise had managed to get a good job, and was going to move out of the rough neighbourhood they lived in together with his girlfriend to start a new life in a better place.
She added: “I have lost my firstborn child. There is nothing, no money, nothing at all that can do anything about that.”
The flood also killed another man, Alessandro Paula, 43, who died after being swept away.
