Tragedy strikes holidaymakers: 13‑year-old Greek girl struck by lightning
There was a tragedy on the Chalkidiki Peninsula in Greece. According to the Greek Reporter, a girl was killed by a lightning strike. The family had come out of the sea to shelter from an approaching storm. "The lightning struck directly in front of us," said the girl's father.
The incident occurred on Friday on the beach in Posidi. According to media reports, the girl was walking along the beach with her mother at around 9:00 GMT when lightning struck her. It had been raining heavily in the region since the morning.
"The lightning struck directly in front of us"
"We were at the beach as a family. We came out of the sea and it was drizzling at the time. A bolt of lightning [right] in front of us," the girl's father told the media.
He added that the family had come out of the sea to take shelter from the approaching storm.
"My wife was leading, [and] my daughter was [just] behind her. They both fell to the ground in the sand. We had already managed to get to the beach. We had come out of the sea. Lightning struck and my girl never got back up," he added.
The girl could not be saved
The 13-year-old was taken to a health centre, but her life could not be saved. The family is from the nearby town of Nea Moudania.
Deaths from lightning strikes are rare in Greece. One should be particularly cautious during storms.
According to scientists from the University of Patras, from 2010 to 2019, 23 people in Greece died from lightning strikes. In 2020, a woman was killed while working on a farm during a storm, and in 2023, a 26-year-old Briton was fatally struck by lightning while swimming off the coast of Rhodes.
