A 60 year old mother of four was killed instantly after she was smashed by a shea tree which had been forcibly uprooted by strong winds.

Mereema Abu was picking sheanut on a family farm land with two others when it started raining and they sought shelter under one of the shea trees.

According to a nephew of the deceased, Mahama Osman, the incident took place around 2pm at Diinanso which is located at the outskirts of the Wa municipality of the Upper West Region.

Dark clouds and strong current announced impending rains few minutes after 1pm forced her to abandon her job and rather sought refuge under one of the Shea trees.

Her shelter became her grave.

Shocked and stricken with grief, the other two tried in vain to free the body from under the tree and had to rush to the nearby community to seek for help.

The locals used cudgels and pickaxes to dig beneath the ground in order to remove the body because it was impossible to push the tree away.

Present at the scene was Inspector Francis Alowize of the Wa municipal police CID.

Meanwhile, several houses and offices in the municipality had their roof ripped off by the rainstorm. The most affected place was the Naa Sidiki Bomi II Park where the north-western stand had its entire roof ripped off.