FRANKFURT/PARIS: At least 46 people, most of them children, have been injured by lightning strikes at a park in Paris and a football match in Germany.

Lightning struck a football pitch in western Germany on Saturday, injuring 35 people, three of them seriously, news agency DPA reported.

The accident — which came as 11 people were hurt in a similar freak strike at a birthday party in a Parisian park — happened at the end of a children’s football match in Hoppstaedten, DPA said, citing police.

The referee of the match was hit directly by the strike and was rushed to hospital.

Two other adults also suffered serious injuries.

Thirty children aged between nine and 11 were lightly injured and were taken to hospital for tests, along with two more adults.

“According to witnesses, there was no rain and the sky wasn’t dark” when the lightning struck, a police spokesman told DPA.

Weather authorities had issued a storm alert for western and southern Germany on Saturday, warning that the bad weather was due to last the weekend.

Storm Elvira had already hit western Germany on Friday, bringing torrential rain and hail and flooding roads in some areas such as the town of Wiesbaden.

In Rhineland-Palatinate, the state where Hoppstaedten is located, bad weather caused a train to derail but there were no injuries.

In Paris, eleven people, eight of them children, were injured when lightning struck as they were holding a birthday party in Parc Monceau in the city’s northwest.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2016

Opinion

Editorial

Afghan turbulence
Updated 19 Mar, 2024

Afghan turbulence

RELATIONS between the newly formed government and Afghanistan’s de facto Taliban rulers have begun on an...
In disarray
19 Mar, 2024

In disarray

IT is clear that there is some bad blood within the PTI’s ranks. Ever since the PTI lost a key battle over ...
Festering wound
19 Mar, 2024

Festering wound

PROTESTS unfolded once more in Gwadar, this time against the alleged enforced disappearances of two young men, who...
Defining extremism
Updated 18 Mar, 2024

Defining extremism

Redefining extremism may well be the first step to clamping down on advocacy for Palestine.
Climate in focus
18 Mar, 2024

Climate in focus

IN a welcome order by the Supreme Court, the new government has been tasked with providing a report on actions taken...
Growing rabies concern
18 Mar, 2024

Growing rabies concern

DOG-BITE is an old problem in Pakistan. Amid a surfeit of public health challenges, rabies now seems poised to ...