Raipur, Sep 7 (IANS) The students cannot get over the horror of watching three of their friends being struck by lightning and dying in front of their eyes. A day after the three boys, all under 10, were hit by a thunder bolt and died in a government school in Chhattisgarh, most students are keeping away from the school, an official said Tuesday.

'Barely 45 of the 350 students have come for classes Tuesday as students are still traumatised by watching their three friends die,' Rajesh Sahu, an official employed with the education department in Janjgir-Champa district, told IANS over phone.

The three students -- Akash, 8, Rajkumar, 8, and Ramkhilawan, 7 -- were killed and four other students critically injured when lightning struck a tree under which they were standing in the school complex at village Pauna in Aklatra block in the district, some 180 km north from capital Raipur.

'The deaths took place at 11.30 a.m. Monday and many students below 10 years of age watched, and they are terrified and shocked. They will probably resume classes once they get over the trauma,' Sahu said.

The four injured students have been hospitalised at Aklatra. The Chhattisgarh government has said it would pay Rs.100,000 each to the families of the dead children.