Today: Lightning Strikes Injure Dozens In France & Germany

Dozens of people, including many children, have been injured as freak lightning strikes hit a Paris park and a football pitch in Germany.

In Germany on Saturday, 35 people were injured in the western village of Hoppstädten when lightning struck the pitch at the end of a children’s football match. Three adults were seriously injured including the referee, who was hit directly and was rushed to hospital by helicopter.

In Paris, 11 people, eight of them children, were injured when lightning struck as they were celebrating a birthday party in Parc Monceau in the north-west of the city.

Paris police said six of the victims were seriously hurt, with three of the children and one adult suffering life-threatening injuries.