One man has been killed and dozens of people, including children, have been taken to hospital as lightning strikes hit parts of Europe, including a park in Paris and a football pitch in Germany.
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The man was killed as he was climbing down a mountain in Poland.
Lightning also struck a children’s football match on Saturday in Germany, sending the referee into cardiac arrest.
Lightning struck a birthday party in the Parc Monceau, in western Paris, injuring 11 people.
Paris police gave a slightly different figure of eight children and three adults injured.
Paris fire service spokesman Eric Moulin said the group had rushed under a tree to shelter when it began to rain. He identified the injured adults as two men and a woman who is the mother of some of the children.
The situation could have been worse had it not been for the rapid intervention of an off-duty firefighter who performed first aid in the Monceau park in the northwest of the French capital.
Witnesses at the match said there were no dark clouds and the sky was blue when lightning struck just after the final whistle. Two small feet, smudged with what looked like soot, stuck out from underneath one of the blankets.
Moulin said six of those hit were seriously injured – with three children and one adult fighting for their lives.
After the strike occurred, a nearby bank was commandeered as a makeshift treatment center, AP reports.
Dr. Pierre Carli, an emergency medical services official, later told journalists that for one of the children, “the prognosis is probably more serious and he is now hospitalized on life support”.
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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.
