Lightning strike at Rastatt handball festival camp injures nine, one woman seriously, as storms lash southwest Germany
A lightning bolt hit a tent pole during a handball festival camp in Rastatt, Baden-Württemberg, on the night of 20 June, injuring nine people, one seriously. The strike was part of a line of severe thunderstorms that also caused festival evacuations, flash flooding, and power outages across southwestern Germany.
Lightning at the handball camp
During the night of 20 June, a line of thunderstorms moved over Baden-Württemberg, where around 120 teams had gathered for a handball festival in Rastatt. Numerous participants were camping on a sports field in the Niederbühl district. As strong winds threatened to blow away the tents, several people tried to secure them. Just before 23:00, lightning hit a tent pole.
Nine people were injured: eight adults and a 13-year-old boy. A woman in her early 20s suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries and remained in hospital; her condition was described as stable. The six other people taken to hospital were discharged by Saturday afternoon.
No one is in mortal danger.
Other storm damage and evacuations
Elsewhere in the state, the severe weather caused disruption. The Southside Festival in Neuhausen ob Eck was suspended for roughly two hours early Friday evening, with tens of thousands of visitors told to shelter in their cars. Near Reutlingen, a lightning strike lightly injured a 71-year-old woman who was preparing food in a party tent in Münsingen; she suffered an electric shock and was taken to hospital. Two lightning strikes in Münsingen also knocked out power across the town for about 90 minutes. In Mannheim, around 35 fire service operations were needed overnight because fallen trees blocked roads, railway lines, and damaged vehicles. No injuries were reported there.
- Dörsbach river level at Kloster Arnstein measured 27 cm.
- Southside Festival interrupted, visitors asked to shelter in cars.
- Dörsbach peaks at 1.96 m; extreme flood warning issued, medieval market cancelled.
- Lightning strikes tent pole at Rastatt handball camp, nine injured.
- Lightning strikes in Münsingen cause power outage; one woman lightly injured.
- Six lightly injured campers discharged from hospital; seriously injured woman remains stable.
Flash flooding in Rhineland-Palatinate
The same storm system dumped heavy rain on parts of Rhineland-Palatinate. In the Rhein-Lahn district, the Dörsbach river at Kloster Arnstein surged from 27 centimetres at 17:00 to 1.96 metres by 20:45, triggering an extreme flood warning. A district spokesperson described the event as a flood of a kind that occurs statistically only every 50 years.
The medieval market in Katzenelnbogen was cancelled at short notice, a tent camp was evacuated, and emergency services responded to more than 60 calls for flooded streets and fallen trees. Water levels receded during the night.It is a flood such as statistically occurs only once every 50 years.
- 2026-06-19T17:00
- 27 cm
- 2026-06-19T20:45
- 196 cm
Forecast: more storms, possible heat record
The German Weather Service (DWD) expects further thunderstorms on Saturday, especially over the Black Forest and the Swabian Alb, with hail up to 2 cm and localised heavy rain of up to 25 litres per square metre per hour.
Saturday’s storms are likely to be less severe, but isolated severe weather is still possible. On Sunday and Monday, temperatures could climb to break the June heat record for Baden-Württemberg.From the low mountain ranges to the coasts, they could be heavy in some areas.
