Nine injured in lightning strike at German sports festival

A powerful thunderstorm struck a sports festival in Rastatt, Germany, injuring nine people. Six individuals required hospitalization following the lightning strike, though authorities confirmed no one was in life-threatening danger. The incident occurred during a handball festival where participants were camping on a sports field in the Niederbühl district when severe weather moved into the region.

Separately, another lightning strike in Münsingen, in the Reutlingen district, lightly injured a woman who was on a sports field in the Dottingen area. She was also taken to a hospital.

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Six of them were taken to a hospital.

The German Weather Service (DWD) had forecast more thunderstorms for Saturday, with potential for intense storms from the central highlands to the coasts. The DWD warned that severe weather was not out of the question as the storm front was expected to move slowly eastward. "Intensification and isolated severe weather are likely there in the course of the afternoon," the DWD stated, adding that further isolated, strong thunderstorms were possible in most regions by late afternoon and evening, except for the far northwest, and these would be very localized.

On Friday, thunderstorms had already passed over southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, though no major damage was initially reported. The DWD had previously issued severe weather warnings for several regions, including Aachen, Bonn, Cologne, Neuss, Düsseldorf, Solingen, and Wuppertal, as well as the Oberbergischer Kreis and Kreis Olpe. Rhineland-Palatinate also experienced severe weather.

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Intensification and isolated severe weather are likely there in the course of the afternoon.