Footballer is killed and six others injured when lightning bolt strikes pitch during cup match

• Caio Henrique de Lima Goncalves, 21, was killed after being struck by lightning

A footballer has been killed and six others injured after a lightening bolt struck a pitch in Brazil during a cup match. 

Caio Henrique de Lima Goncalves, 21, was playing for his Uniao Jaiirense team in a cup fixture in the southern state of Parana when he was jolted by the lightning strike on Sunday. 

He was rushed to hospital after collapsing on the pitch on Sunday but he later died of his injuries, police in Santo Antonio da Platina said.

Chilling footage recorded moments after the lightening strike shows the pitch littered with stricken players and officials desperately racing to get them to safety and medical treatment. 

The stormy weather continued as the officials carried the collapsed players off the pitch, with the threat of a second lightening strike seeming possible at any moment.

Caio Henrique de Lima Goncalves, 21, (pictured) was playing for his Uniao Jaiirense team in a cup fixture in the southern state of Parana when he was jolted by the lightning strike on Sunday

Goncalves had been playing for his Uniao Jaiirense team against Unidos, from Santo Antonio da Platina, on Sunday in an amateur cup fixture at the Jose Eleuterio da Silva stadium when the lightning stuck. 

Five of the six players who were struck by the lightening are still in a local hospital under observation, while a sixth more seriously injured player was rushed to a regional hospital. 

In a statement, Santo Antonio da Platina city hall mourned Goncalves’ death and said that it is ‘making every effort to ensure that those affected have the best possible care.’

Whilst rare, there have been other cases of people being killed in lightning strikes in recent months.

Goncalves was rushed to hospital after collapsing on the pitch on Sunday but he later died of his injuries, police in Santo Antonio da Platina said

Caio Henrique de Lima Goncalves, 21, (pictured) was playing for his Uniao Jaiirense team in a cup fixture in the southern state of Parana when he was jolted by the lightning strike

In November, a Venezuelan woman was struck by lightning and killed in the Colombian Caribbean coast province of Cartagena.

Froilanis Rivas, 34, was standing near the shore of a beach in the town of La Boquilla when she was struck, footage by a bystander showed. 

Paramedics rushed Rivas, a mother of two children, to Serena del Mar Hospital and spent 45 minutes attempting to resuscitate after she had gone into cardiac arrest. She was later pronounced dead.

And in the same month, a tour guide was killed by a freak lightning strike in Brazil after he warned his group it would rain. 

Leilson de Souza, 36, was leading hikers through a trail at Tijuca National Park lin Rio de Janeiro when he was he was jolted last month. 

Meanwhile, a British tourist Scott Seddon, 26, was killed by a lightning strike while paddleboarding in Rhodes, Greece, in May. 

Mr Seddon, who lived with his sister Layla and father Steve in a large bungalow in Liverpool, was described by close friends as a ‘lovely guy’ and ‘really popular’. 

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