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Paris lightning strikes leave several children injured Lightning strikes injure dozens in France and Germany
(about 3 hours later)
Several children are fighting for their lives in hospital after 11 people were struck by lightning in Paris on Saturday. Dozens of people, including many children, have been injured as freak lightning strikes hit a Paris park and a football pitch in Germany.
The victims were sheltering under a tree in Parc Monceau, in the eighth arrondissement in north-west Paris, after a sudden storm struck. They had been attending a birthday party. In Germany on Saturday, 35 people were injured in the western village of Hoppstädten when lightning struck the pitch at the end of a children’s football match. Three adults were seriously injured including the referee, who was hit directly and was rushed to hospital by helicopter, DPA news agency reported.
Eric Moulin, a Paris fire service spokesman, said an off-duty firefighter ran to the scene and saw eight children and three adults lying on the ground. He administered first aid and CPR and helped direct rescuers to the scene. “Without his actions, it would have been much worse,” Moulin said. In Paris, 11 people, eight of them children, were injured when lightning struck as they were celebrating a birthday party in Parc Monceau in the north-west of the city.
Four children and two adults were seriously injured, while four children and one adult were slightly hurt. The children were aged between seven and 14. Paris police said six of the victims were seriously hurt, with three of the children and one adult suffering life-threatening injuries.
The victims suffered burns and were taken to Necker hospital, a specialist children’s hospital in south-west Paris. Eric Moulin, a Paris fire service spokesman, said an off-duty firefighter ran to the scene and saw eight children and three adults lying on the ground. The firefighter administered first aid and CPR and helped direct rescuers to the scene. “Without his actions, it would have been much worse,” Moulin said.
Jean-Louis Laurens, who lives near the park, said the wild storm sent lightning bolts crashing into the park. Emergency services attended the scene, with 29 fire engines mobilised.
“It was while they were heading for shelter, when they were still near a tree, that the lightning fell,” Moulin said.
Four children and two adults were seriously injured, while four children and one adult were slightly hurt. The children were aged between 7 and 14.
Witnesses to the German lightning strike said it came out of the blue.
“There was no rain and the sky wasn’t dark,” a police spokesman told DPA.
Thirty children aged between nine and 11 were lightly injured and were taken to hospital for tests, along with five adults.
In Paris, the injured were taken to hospitals including Necker hospital, a specialist children’s facility.
Authorities at Necker have set up a psychological and medical support cell to assist the families of the victims.
The area of the park where the lightning struck was fenced off with caution tape, while two kids’ jackets, still soaking wet from the rain, could be seen hanging on the fence.
Local official Vincent Baladi, speaking to iTELE television, said the injuries included burns.
“We hope they will all pull through,” said Baladi, who handles security matters in Paris’ eighth arrondissement where the park is located.
Located in an affluent neighbourhood of the city’s northwest, Parc Monceau is popular with families at the weekend.
While lightning usually strikes individual people, it is possible for whole groups to be struck at once.
Michel Daloz of weather agency Meteo-France told AFP that between 100 and 200 people are struck by lightning every year in the country, killing between 10 and 20 people.
He stressed that people should never head under trees during storms - as the group did in the Parisian park - as they often attract lightning.
“It’s what we call the ‘lightning rod effect’,” said Daloz. In the case of Parc Monceau, he added, “the floor was wet, so it conducted much more strongly.”
Victims of lightning strikes can suffer lasting cardiological and neurological effects, Daloz said.