A 44-year-old woman from Tromsø died after being hit by lightning while she participated in a terrain race in northern Italy on Saturday.
The woman participated in the Ultra Skyrace in the Alps in South Tyrol when she was hit by a lightning strike around 1900 Saturday evening. She was 2,100 meters above sea level, reports the news agency ANSA, which retrieves its information from Italian rescue services.
Rescue workers reached the woman in the mountains near the border with Austria and transported her to hospital where she later died.
The woman was 44, according to a press release on the race’s own website.
The woman was hit by lightning a half hour after the race was interrupted, but she was among the runners who were between the points where the runners were stopped and which the guards did not reach in time, the organizer informs.
“We are deeply affected by this tragic accident. We express our condolences to the family of the participant,” says Josef Günther Mair, leader of the event.
A prize ceremony that should have been held at 11 am on Sunday was canceled.
The race started and ended in the South Tyrolean town of Bolzano.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is aware that a Norwegian citizen has died in Italy. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs cannot comment on further individual details in the case,” says press spokesperson Per Wiggen to NTB.
To Nordlys, Troms police district informs that the woman was resident in Tromsø.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
