Lightning strikes and kills one person in Pas-de-Calais, several people injured

A man died after being struck by lightning in Pas-de-Calais on the evening of Thursday May 23. At least two other people were injured, one seriously.

While Pas-de-Calais was plagued by bad weather, lightning struck the town of Courrières, near Lens. Lightning struck the Gabriel-Péri stadium around 8 p.m., while football training was in progress, and killed one person, announced the Pas-de-Calais prefecture. The victim, a man aged around thirty and coach at the Courrières club according to information from The voice of the North, died of lightning despite resuscitation attempts by emergency services.

Lightning caused at least two other victims according to AFP. One suffers from “chest pain” and was transported to the Lens hospital center because of her injuries considered serious, the second is slightly injured, burned on the leg, according to the press release from the prefecture. Two people were seriously injured according to The voice of the North which also includes four other victims with lighter injuries such as burns or headaches. All were taken care of by firefighters and taken to hospital centers. Around thirty other people, 29 to 33 depending on the sources, were present on the ground when the lightning struck: “They are shocked, but unharmed,” said the prefecture.

Several rescue and medical teams intervened in Courrières after the lightning strike to take care of the victims and a medical-psychological emergency unit (CUMP) was triggered in the evening to support the witnesses of the tragedy and the relatives of the victims. victims. People who witnessed the scene and the death of the victim expressed their shock, in particular a coach of the club who indicated to BFMTV : “Lightning rose from his feet to his head, I saw everything.”