Lightning strike kills 11 in Colombia

(CNN) -- A lightning strike killed 11 members of an indigenous tribe in northern Colombia Monday after an electrical storm broke out during an early morning ritual.

Helicopters airlifted 13 injured people to hospitals for treatment, Columbia Army Gen. German Saavedra told reporters.

The lightning struck around 3 a.m. Monday during a ritual of the Wiwa community's government in the remote Sierra Nevada mountains, CNN affiliate Caracol TV reported.

"I know that this is normal, that it is something that comes from nature, but nothing like this has ever happened there," said Marta Cecilia Gil, who tearfully told Caracol her brother and brother-in-law died in the lightning strike.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos tweeted his condolences and said military and police helicopters were evacuating the victims.