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| Lightning strikes kill and injure in Europe | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: 28 May 2016, 10:51 PM (43 Views) | |
| skibboy | 28 May 2016, 10:51 PM Post #1 |
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Lightning strikes kill and injure in Europe 57 minutes ago Lightning strikes in several European countries have killed and caused serious injuries as summer storms hit across the Continent. A man was killed in southern Poland as he was hit by lightning while descending a mountain. In Paris, a birthday party in Parc Monceau was struck, injuring 11 people, eight of them children. Several are in a life-threatening condition. Three people were seriously hurt at a youth football match in Germany. Initial reports said 35 people had been injured at the match in Hoppstaedten in the country's south-west - however, many were taken to hospital as a precaution. Paris police said the children injured in Parc Monceau on Saturday afternoon were aged about nine. They were struck after seeking shelter under a tree, police said. An off-duty firefighter, Pascal Gremillot, happened to be nearby and was able to rapidly administer first aid and heart massages. Officials said the situation would have been much worse if he had not been there. Six of those injured are in a serious condition. ![]() Glasses and a jacket were left behind in the Parc Monceau after the incident ![]() A nearby building was requisitioned to treat the injured ![]() Firefighters were called to Parc Monceau on Saturday afternoon ![]() The Parc Monceau lies in Paris's wealthy eighth arrondissement Reports in Poland said that a man in his 40s died after being hit by lightning while hiking in the mountains in the south of the country. Separately, a second man was found dead in a river swollen by heavy rains. Another group of three tourists were struck by lightning in the mountains, mountain rescue told TVN24. 'Blue sky' Witnesses to the lightning strike at a football match in Hoppstaedten said there were no dark clouds and the sky was blue when lightning struck at the end of the match. The referee was one of three adults at the match who suffered serious injuries, police in Kaiserslautern said. He took a direct lightning hit, suffered a cardiac arrest and was taken to hospital by helicopter. Another man was also airlifted to hospital and a third was taken by ambulance. All three injured men were in their 40s, the police added. According to German media reports, some of the child footballers, aged nine to 11, were taken to hospital as a precaution after electrocardiogram (ECG) investigations showed their heart function required further investigation. ![]() Multiple emergency services vehicles attended the aftermath of the lightning strike in south-west Germany Torrential rain also halted play at the French Open as defending champion Serena Williams was about to start a match against Kristina Mladenovic. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Safety tips when lightning strikes - Seek shelter inside a large building or a car - Get out of wide, open spaces and exposed hilltops -If you have nowhere to shelter, make yourself as small a target as possible by crouching down with your feet together, hands on knees and head tucked in - Do not shelter beneath tall or isolated trees - If you are on water, get to the shore and off wide, open beaches as quickly as possible Source: Rospa ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Analysis, by Clive Mills-Hicks, Meteorologist, Met Office The storms developed because a very warm and humid air mass covered mainland north-west Europe at the same time as the air higher up in the atmosphere was becoming colder, creating a very "unstable" atmosphere. This instability manifested itself in the storms which developed extremely rapidly once the air had warmed up sufficiently. Over much of the area, the temperature climbed to 25 Celsius, more than enough to trigger the storm clouds. Such storms produce intense rainfall, hail, and numerous lightning strikes and it is typical for them to be at their most widespread and intense in the early afternoon. They are not unusual over the continent during the summer, although today's outbreaks were perhaps more widespread than normal. Further storms are likely over Europe on Sunday: the areas expected to see the storms are southern and eastern Germany, the Czech Republic, and the western half of Poland. In addition to the widespread nature of today's storms, the fact that they came at a weekend, and during otherwise fine, warm weather, made it more likely that they would have an impact on people. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Source:
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| skibboy | 28 May 2016, 11:32 PM Post #2 |
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28 May 2016 Lightning strikes German football pitch, 35 injured, 3 seriously: report © DPA/AFP/File | Weather authorities have issued a storm alert for western and southern Germany, warning that bad weather is due to last the weekend FRANKFURT (AFP) - 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. Source:
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9:40 AM Jul 11