Dozens of people have been injured by a lightning strike at a major music festival in Germany.
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Organisers suspended the event, where the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Black Sabbath were billed to perform, but have stopped short of cancelling the festival.
The event website had reported early Saturday morning that at least 42 people were injured, eight seriously.
Rock am Ring festival organisers had halted performances for several hours on Saturday during another thunderstorm, temporarily sending some 92,500 fans to their cars and tents for safety, but vowing to resume the open-air event.
At least eight people were hospitalized, according to the German Red Cross.
Rock am Ring is one of the most popular festivals in Germany and has been staged since 1985.
“It’s not about causing panic but giving people the feeling that someone is looking after them”, he said.
On the same day, 11 people, a lot of them children, were injured by lightning in a Paris park after taking shelter under a tree during a storm.
Paramedics said more than 70 people were hospitalised after a storm struck the Rock am Ring festival late on Friday at a former airfield near Mendig, 100km west of Frankfurt.
Lieberberg dismissed reports that organizers were too slow to warn the music fans about the Friday storm, blaming the injuries on the “catastrophic weather situation in Germany” instead.
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News of the damaging strike comes after over a week of unruly weather and record-breaking floods throughout much of central Europe, including France, Ukraine and parts of Germany.
