Caught on video, the terrifying scene as paramedics scrambled to save eight children hit by LIGHTNING at birthday party in Paris 

This was the chaotic scene as paramedics scrambled to save eight children struck by lightning at a birthday party in Paris.

Dramatic footage shows how a bank became a make-shift hospital after 11 people were hit by lightning at Park Monceau in the heart of the French capital.

Children wrapped in gold thermal blankets lay on the bank's tiled floor as firefighters administered first aid before evacuating the victims to hospitals in the city following the storm yesterday.

Professor Pierre Carli, director of Necker hospital, said later that one child was in a very serious condition and had required resuscitation.

There were chaotic scenes as paramedics scrambled to save eight children hit by lightning at a birthday party in Paris

Dramatic footage shows how a bank became a make-shift hospital after 11 people were hit by lightning at Park Monceau in the heart of the French capita

The children were aged about nine and four people but Carli said last night that three other seriously injured children at the party were now out of immediate danger and under observation. Four other children who were lightly wounded by the lightning strike are 'simply under observation.'

He says two men and one woman at the party were also injured and the woman was the mother of some of the injured children. 

Carli did not give reporters an update on the adults' conditions, one of whom was previously described by a fire official as suffering from life-threatening injuries.

On the same day, a walker in his 40s was killed by lightning as he was descending the Babia Gora mountain in southern Poland.

Three others were also hit by lightning bolts in the region while a 61-year-old man drowned in flood water as storms swept across the continent.

Two men and one woman at the party were also injured and the woman was the mother of some of the injured children

Doctors treated eight children at the scene and one child was said to be in a very serious condition and had required resuscitation

Children wrapped in gold thermal blankets lay on the bank's tiled floor as firefighters administered first aid before evacuating the victims to hospitals in the city

In Germany, more than 30 people were taken to hospital in the western village of Hoppstaedten when lightning struck the pitch at the end of a children's football match.

Most of those affected were children, who were taken to hospital as a precaution and were found to be unharmed.

However three adults were seriously injured including the 45-year-old referee who was hit directly and had to be resuscitated before being rushed to hospital by helicopter.

Witnesses said it happened without warning.

'There was no rain and the sky wasn't dark,' a police spokesman told DPA.

Twenty-nine children aged between nine and 11 were taken to hospital for tests, where they were given the all-clear, a police spokeswoman told AFP.

In Paris, all the children at the party were aged between seven and nine-years-old.

Firefighters equipped with first aid kits arrive at the entrance to Paris's Parc Monceau, where 10 children were injured by a lightning strike

The children were attending a birthday party at the park which is in the eighth arrondissement

Emergency crews rushed to the scene and the children have been taken to Necker Hospital

Fire chief Eric Moulin (pictured) said four of those involved, including three children, were believed to be in a life-threatening condition

Paris fire service spokesman Eric Moulin said the group had rushed under a tree to shelter when it began to rain.

'It was while they were heading for shelter, when they were still near a tree, that the lightning fell,' Moulin said. 

Fre service spokesman Moulin said it was an off-duty firefighter who had given the first aid, after hearing the commotion and rushing to help.

Emergency services were on the scene, with 29 fire engines mobilised.

The injured were taken to Paris hospitals including Necker hospital, a specialist children's facility.

Authorities at Necker have set up a psychological and medical support cell to assist the families of the victims.

Parc Monceau is in the affluent eight arrondissement, just north of the city's main tourist attractions

The area of the park where the lightning struck was fenced off with caution tape, while two kids' jackets, still soaking wet from the rain, could be seen hanging on the fence.

Local official Vincent Baladi, speaking to iTELE television, said the injuries included burns.

Located in a well-heeled neighbourhood of the city's northwest, Parc Monceau is popular with families at the weekend. 

While lightning usually strikes individual people, it is possible for whole groups to be struck at once.

Michel Daloz of weather agency Meteo-France said that between 100 and 200 people are struck by lightning every year in the country, killing between 10 and 20 people.

He stressed that people should never head under trees during storms - as the group did in the Parisian park - as they often attract lightning.

This off-duty firefighter, identified only as Pascal, gave first aid to some of the injured children in the park. Mr Moulin said it showed the importance of knowing first aid

Thunderstorms hit Paris on Saturday. This picture shows the storm clouds about Roland Garros tennis arena

Accident: Lighting also struck at a children's football match in Hoppstaedten, western Germany, injuring 35 people, three of them seriously, on Saturday afternoon

'It's what we call the 'lightning rod effect',' said Daloz. In the case of Parc Monceau, he added, 'the floor was wet, so it conducted much more strongly.'

Victims of lightning strikes can suffer lasting cardiological and neurological effects, Daloz said. 

Storm alerts had been issued for several regions across southern France on Saturday, warning of the possibility of 'violent' weather - but Paris, to the north, was not on the list.

Torrential rain had halted play at the French Open in Paris for more than two and a half hours on Saturday afternoon.

Weather authorities in Germany had also issued storm alerts for the country's west and south on Saturday.

Storm Elvira had already hit the west on Friday, bringing torrential rain and hail and flooding roads in some areas.

In Rhineland-Palatinate, the state where Hoppstaedten is located, bad weather caused a train to derail on Friday, but there were no injuries.