Entire Family Struck by Lightning

A nine-year-old German boy was taken to hospital on Wednesday after he and four other members of his family were struck by lightning.

German newspaper Bild reports that the family were struck when they were in their garden gathering furniture as a storm approached their home in Chemnitz, Saxony.

The boy’s grandmother, her daughter and daughter-in-law, and two grandsons aged six and nine were all taken to hospital after being hit.

The daughter-in-law, Ricarda, told the paper that she felt “a tingling sensation from head to toe”.

“There was chaos,” She said. “Everybody was just acting on autopilot. A few minutes later the ambulance arrived.”

The nine-year-old boy had to be resuscitated by his father and grandfather, but the rest only had minor injuries. The boy remains in hospital where his condition is described as “serious”.

Helge Tuschy from Deutscher Wetterdienst, the German meteorological society, said a storm had been building in the area on Wednesday afternoon, with more than 30 lightning strikes reported after the incident.