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Lightning strikes kill one and injure dozens across Europe
Lightning strikes kill one and injure dozens across Europe
(about 1 hour later)
One man has been killed and several people, including children, injured as lightning strikes hit parts of central Europe.
One man has died and scores of people been injured, including children, as lightning strikes hit several parts of Europe, including a park in Paris and a football pitch in Germany.
In southern Poland on Saturday, a man in his forties was killed when he was struck by lightning as he descended the Babia Góra mountain, local media said.
A bolt of lightning killed a man hiking in mountains in south-west Poland on Saturday. Storm lightning injured three others in the same region, and a 61-year-old man drowned in flash flooding.
Three others were injured by lightning in the region, while a 61-year-old man drowned in floodwaters, according to TVN24 television and PAP news agency.
In Germany, more than 30 people were taken to hospital in the western village of Hoppstädten when lightning struck at the end of a junior football match. Three adults were seriously injured, including the referee who was hit directly and had to be resuscitated before being airlifted to hospital.
In Germany, more than 30 people were taken to hospital in the western village of Hoppstädten when lightning struck the pitch at the end of a children’s football match.
Eleven people, including eight children, were injured when lightning struck as they were celebrating a birthday party in a park in north-west Paris. The children, aged between seven and eight years old, took shelter beneath a tree when the storm broke. A hospital spokesman said one child remained in a serious condition.
Most of those affected were children, who were taken to hospital as a precaution and were found to be unharmed.
Officials said the situation would have been much worse if an off-duty firefighter, Pascal Gremillot, who happened to be close by, had not been able to quickly administer first aid and heart massages. Eric Moulin, Paris fire service spokesman, said the group had rushed under a tree to shelter when it began to rain. “It was while they were heading for shelter, when they were still near a tree, that the lightning fell,” he said.
However, three adults were seriously injured including the 45-year-old referee, who was hit directly and had to be resuscitated before being rushed to hospital by helicopter.
Michel Daloz of weather agency Meteo-France said that between 100 and 200 people are struck by lightning every year in the country, killing between 10 and 20 people. Storm alerts had been issued for several regions across France on Saturday, warning of the possibility of violent weather – but Paris was not on the list.
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.
Witnesses to the German lightning strike reported that it happened without warning. “There was no rain and the sky wasn’t dark,” a police spokesman said.
Prof Pierre Carli, director of Necker hospital in Paris, said later that only one child was in a very serious condition and had required resuscitation.
Twenty-nine children, aged between nine and 11, were taken to hospital for tests but later released officials said.
All the children at the party were aged between seven and eight years old.
German weather experts issued storm alerts for the country’s west and south. Storm Elvira had already caused torrential rain, hail and flooding in some areas.
Paris fire service spokesman Eric Moulin said the group had rushed under a tree to shelter when it began to rain.
In Rhineland-Palatinate, the region where Hoppstädten is located, bad weather caused a train to derail on Friday, but there were no injuries.
“It was while they were heading for shelter, when they were still near a tree, that the lightning fell,” Moulin said.
Weather experts said the storms were the result of a very “unstable” atmosphere over mainland north-west Europe. At the same time the air higher up in the atmosphere was becoming colder, creating a very “unstable” atmosphere.
Witnesses to the German lightning strike said it happened without warning.
Further storms are forecast over south and east Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland on Sunday.
“There was no rain and the sky wasn’t dark,” a police spokesman told DPA.
Twenty-nine children aged between nine and 11 were taken to hospital for tests, where they were given the all-clear, a police spokeswoman told AFP.
In Paris, Moulin said it was an off-duty firefighter who had given the first aid, after hearing the commotion and rushing to help.
Emergency services were on the scene, with 29 fire engines mobilised. The injured were taken to Paris 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.
Located in an affluent neighbourhood, 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.
