Two men died and a third was injured Sunday after lightning struck a tree under which they had been seeking shelter from the rain during a soccer match in north Houston, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said.
A men’s league soccer club game was being played when it began to rain around 12:10 pm. A group of players took shelter under a tree.
Lighting struck the tree, killing one man at the scene, Deputy Thomas Gilliland, a sheriff’s office spokesman, told NBC News. Two other men were transported by ambulance to a hospital. One was pronounced dead on arrival and the other was in stable condition, Gilliland said.
Names of the victims were not immediately released.
Prior to Sunday, at least nine people have been killed by lightning in eight states this year, according to the National Weather Service.
