One person died and another 14 were injured, including eight children, after being hit by lightning on Wednesday in New Jersey, authorities said.
The strike reached the ground near a group in Black Knight Bowbenders Archery Range, a well -known community site that regularly houses events, said the mayor of the municipality of Jackson, Michael Reina, to the ABC station in New York Wabc.
The Police Department of the municipality of Jackson said that he received a call shortly after 7 PM informing several people attacked by lightning, which turned out that a man was administered CPR, while other victims were being triad.
A person was killed and more than a dozen were injured by a ray strike in a archery field in Jackson Township, NJ, on Wednesday, July 16, 2025.
Wabc
Robert Montgomery, 61, who was identified by the mayor as an instructor, died from his wounds, according to the police department of the municipality of Jackson.
The injuries varied from “burns to complaints not specific to not feeling good,” said the police department in a statement to WABC. A person was unconscious but then regained consciousness, police said.
All were transported to nearby hospitals, including the Medical Center of the University of Jersey Shore. A person with more serious injuries was taken to the Livingston Burning Center.
This was the twelfth fatality of the ray in the country this year, according to the National Meteorological Service. It is the second death in New Jersey in so many weeks, after a 28 -year -old golfer died after being beaten by a ray in a course in Hamburg on July 8.
“This is a tragedy,” Reina told Wabc. “My thoughts and prayers are with the victim’s family and all the injured tonight. It is difficult to understand what happened.”
The rays are seen in this stock image.
Stock Photo/Adobe Stock
A severe electrical storm warning was issued for the area on Wednesday night.
Much of the northwest and the center of New Jersey were also under flood watches until Wednesday night, and storms are expected to produce strong downpours after a deadly flood earlier this week.
A common misunderstanding is that an electric thunderstorm must be severe to be potentially deadly, but that is not true. A casual summer storm that has some rumbles of a distant thunder can be deadly.
Whether it is raining or if it is completely cloudy at the top or partially sunny as a storm accumulates, if a thunder can be heard, there is the danger of being outside and must seek refuge immediately.
Darren Reynolds, Jason Vock and Daniel Manzo of ABC News contributed to this report.
