A WAR veteran (74) in the Zambezi region suffered a great loss when 17 head of cattle were killed by lightning on Wednesday morning.

The incident occurred at Chixu village in the Kongola constituency.

The devastated owner, Lukas Machinga, told The Namibian on Friday his cattle herder was also struck by lightning, although fortunately it was not fatal.

According to Machinga, the cattle herder told him the lightning came from nowhere and struck about three kilometres away from the kraal.

"After being struck by the lightning, my cattle herder lost consciousness for a while. When he woke up, he just saw the cattle scattered all over and then rushed to come inform us," he said.

Maching said about 11 of the cattle were female, with four expected to give birth in March. In addition, there were six big oxen.

"It's really a great loss because I used to sustain my family and myself with these cattle.

"I slaughtered all the cattle and shared the meat with the villagers," he said.