FC Nordsjælland’s 24-year-old professional soccer player Jonathan Richter is in an induced coma and a respirator after being struck by a bolt of lightning during a training match against Hvidovre yesterday evening.

Richter was struck when an unexpected thundercloud and downpour washed across the Hvidovre stadium. Lightning grounded in a group of three players including Richter. The other two players were relatively unharmed in the incident, but Richter suffered cardiac arrest.

A colleague gave the young player artificial respiration until medics arrived on the scene to transfer the unconscious player to Hvidovre hospital.

“We are keeping him cooled down as is prescribed under cardiac arrest,” Hvidovre Hospital Resident Morten Lind tells TV2.