A footballer has been killed in Indonesia after being struck by lightning while on the pitch.
A video captured the moment the 35-year-old male was hit, falling to the ground as his team-mates were left stunned. The individual was from Subang and collapsed at Siliwangi Stadium in Bandung, West Java. The tragic incident occurred during a friendly football match between 2 FLO FC Bandung and FBI Subang.
Reports by local media PRFM News state that the man was still breathing after being struck by lightning and rushed to a local hospital, but died soon afterwards. This is the second time an Indonesian footballer has been struck by lightning in the last 12 months.
A young football player in Bojonegoro, East Java was struck by lightning during the Soeratin U-13 Cup in 2023. He suffered a cardiac arrest as a result and was rushed off the pitch and taken to the Ibnu Sina Hospital in Bojonegoro for medical treatment.
He was successfully revived after medical assistance and regained consciousness after approximately 20 minutes.
Such incidents are incredibly rare but just over 25 years ago an entire team were killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which appears a whopping five times in the world’s top 10 hotspots of average lightning strikes per year.
The freak blast of lightning tragically wiped out an entire team while they were playing a game in the Democratic Republic of Congo back in October 1998. Bena Tshadi were drawing 1-1 with visitors Basanga in the Kasai province when a bolt from the sky struck them.
Local reports at the time said 11 people, both players and spectators, lost their lives to the direct strike, while a further 30 at the game received burns.
The daily newspaper L’Avenir, in Kinshasa, reported at the time: “Lightning killed at a stroke 11 young people aged between 20 and 35 years during a football match.”