Lightning killed all 11 members of a football team during a match in the Democratic Republic of the Congo while leaving the opposing team untouched, a Kinshasa newspaper said yesterday.

"Lightning killed at a stroke 11 young people aged between 20 and 35 years during a football match," said a report in the daily L'Avenir.

Thirty other people had received burns at the weekend match, said the report which was sourced to the Congo Press Agency. It said: "The athletes from (the home team) Basanga curiously came out of this catastrophe unscathed."

The two teams in the match, in eastern Kasai province, were drawing 1-1 when the lightning struck, the paper said. "The exact nature of the lightning has divided the population in this region known for its use of fetishes in football," it added.

There was no official confirmation of the report as a rebel war affects much of the east of the country.