BERLIN: Two young women suffered serious injuries after lightning struck them while they were taking selfies in Germany, officials said on Monday. A spokesman for Bochum police said first responders found the 23 and 21-year-old women lying on the ground with their clothing torn in the city’s Wattenscheid district on Sunday evening.

Paramedics had to resuscitate the 23-year-old and she remains in intensive care with life-threatening injuries, Bochum police spokesman Volker Schuette said.

The younger woman told police the last thing she remembered was walking with her friend on a footpath and recording each other with their smartphones, Schuette told The Associated Press. “Clearly they were surprised by the storm,” he said.

The 21-year-old was also hospitalised, but her life is not thought to be endangered.

Western Europe has experienced heavy storms in recent days, following an unusually long stretch of very warm weather this month. Flash floods as high as 5.3 feet submerged roads and basements Sunday in parts of central Germany. Firefighters in the state of Hesse rescued two women who were trapped in their car by a mudslide. Dozens of flights were cancelled at Frankfurt Airport, Germany’s busiest, because of storms.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2018