"A lucky bystander has caught the moment Christ was struck by lightning during a storm in Rio de Janeiro.
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Designer Leticia Sherry, 27, filmed as the city's iconic Christ the Redeemer statue endured a lashing at the hands of Mother Nature, losing a finger in the process.
Father Omar, rector of the shrine that holds the statue, told the Globo radio station that lightning frequently strikes the 30-metre-high statue, a symbol of Rio that overlooks the Brazilian city from the peak of the 700-metre Corcovado mountain.
Its right hand had been damaged sometime ago, but the third finger of the right hand finally broke off in a storm late Thursday.
"They say lightning does not strike the same spot twice. But with the Christ it does," the priest said on Friday.
A lightning rod and other equipment are in place "to protect the image," but they do not always do the trick, he said.
