Lightning strikes leave 9 badly hurt in France and Germany.

Lightning strikes in northern France and southwest Germany on Saturday left nine people seriously hurt, authorities said.

Eleven people were injured by a bolt of lightning in a park in Paris, six of them badly, the French interior ministry said.

Eight of those hurt were children, the ministry said in a statement. The incident occurred in the Monceau park in the northwest of the French capital.

The children, aged between seven and 14, had been attending a birthday party in the park at the time, Itele TV channel quoted officials as saying.

Eric Moulin, a spokesman for the French firefighting service, said the situation would have been worse if an off-duty fire officer had not been at hand to quickly provide first aid.

A lightning strike at a children's football match in Hoppstaetten in the German region of Rheinland-Pfalz on Saturday left the referee and two other adults seriously injured. Twenty-nine children were taken to hospital as a precaution.

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