Lightning struck a school field in Nara on the evening of April 10, sending six students to hospital, including one in critical condition.

At around 5:50 p.m., lightning hit the No. 2 ground of school corporation Tezukayama Gakuen, and a person called emergency services, reporting that "two or three boys about junior high school age have collapsed."

According to Nara Prefectural Police's Nara Nishi Police Station, five 14-year-old male junior high school students and one 16-year-old female high school student were transported to hospital. Among them, one boy is in cardiopulmonary arrest. The other five are conscious, although two are dazed and some are experiencing numbness in their limbs.

Tezukayama Gakuen operates a university and elementary, junior high and high schools near the site. About 20 middle and high school soccer team members and some members of the baseball team were reportedly practicing on the ground at the time, along with teachers. The students taken to the hospital were five members of the boys' soccer team and a baseball team assistant. Local police are interviewing students and school staff who were present at the scene to gather detailed information about the incident.

The school field is located in a residential area about 500 meters west of Gakuemmae Station on Kintetsu Railway's Nara Line. According to the Japan Meteorological Agency's Osaka Regional Headquarters, a thunderstorm warning had been issued for the entire Nara Prefecture from around 4:30 a.m. April 10. Numerous lightning strikes were observed between 5:30 p.m. and shortly before 7 p.m.

(Japanese original by Yasuhiro Tanabe, Kazugi Yamaguchi and Fumika Kiya, Nara Bureau; and Go Taniguchi, Osaka Cultural News Department)