Baden-Wuerttemberg
35-year-old dies after lightning strikes tree
Rescue services near the scene of the accident. in Unterensingen. photo
© Sascha Baumann/All4foto.de/dpa
Lightning strikes a tree in a tourist restaurant. Three people are then in mortal danger. One of them dies a day later.
A 35-year-old man is one after the impact succumbed to his serious injuries after being struck by lightning in a tree near Stuttgart. He died in the hospital, as the police headquarters in Reutlingen announced in the early evening.
The man was critically injured on Saturday afternoon when he was sitting with other people at a beer table set under the tree at a tourist restaurant in the municipality of Unterensingen in the Esslingen district. An 11-year-old boy and a 43-year-old woman also suffered life-threatening injuries in the incident. As the police announced in the evening, the woman is still in mortal danger and is being treated in intensive care. The 11-year-old is in hospital.
Another woman was injured. The children of the 40-year-olds – a 4-year-old boy and a girl aged almost 11 months – suffered a shock. According to the police, they were in a bicycle trailer at the time of the storm.
Ambulance service with large contingent on site
First responders tended to the injured before they were taken to hospitals. A rescue helicopter flew the boy to a clinic. The rescue service was on site with a large contingent, including four emergency doctors. An emergency aftercare service was deployed to look after the first responders and eyewitnesses.
According to the police, around 15 people had sought shelter in a barn when the thunderstorm blew up. Several lightning bolts struck houses in Baden-Württemberg on Saturday.
Experts advise people to seek shelter in a building or a closed car during thunderstorms. Outside you should find a flat spot or, better still, a deep spot, squat down, put your feet close together and close your arms around your knees.