Christ the Redeemer overlooking Rio, Brazil. Photograph by Pedro Kirilo
A lightning strike on Thursday has damaged the iconic statue of Christ the Redeemer that overlooks Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
The strike reportedly chipped the middle finger of the right hand of the statue which stands 38m tall on the steep Corcovado’s Mount above Brazil’s second largest city and former capital.
The damage comes only a few years after a £1.46 million restoration of the statue in 2010, where badly eroded parts of the statue’s face and hands were repaired. Luckily, however, the archdiocese of Rio has maintained a stock of the original stone used to create the statue in 1931 with which they repair the figure.
The statue has been exposed to increased lightning activity in recent years, with many blaming the increasing urbanisation of the city, which creates and island of heat and increased pollution which can contribute to the risk of such strikes.
