Lightning Strikes Children's Birthday Party, 11 Injured

Eleven people, many of them children, were struck by lightning Saturday afternoon in a park in Paris, the BBC reports. According to the AP, eight of the victims were children around the age of 9. The children were attending a birthday party at Parc Monceau—a spot popular with "well-to-do families"—when a storm rolled in and they sought shelter under a tree. Four children and two adults were seriously injured with four of the victims in life-threatening condition. An off-duty fireman rushed to help and performed first aid on a number of the victims. "Without his actions, it would have been much worse," a fire service spokesperson tells the AP.

Three-hundred miles away in Hoppstaetten, Germany, 30 children and five adults were hospitalized Saturday after lightning struck a soccer field, the New York Daily News reports. A youth league match was going on with multiple bolts hit the field. Three adults were seriously injured, including the match's referee. (More lightning strike stories.)