Three hikers—two brothers aged 60 and 62, and the younger brother’s wife—were killed by a lightning strike Sunday afternoon while descending the 2,268-meter (7,440-foot) Mittagsspitze peak near Flirsch, Austria.
The Alpine Police in Landeck confirmed the victims likely died instantly from the same catastrophic strike during a sudden thunderstorm in the rugged Tyrolean Alps.
A mountain rescue helicopter located the hikers’ bodies near a marked trail hours after the strike, with poor weather delaying recovery efforts. Police spokesperson Markus Walter described the incident as exceptionally rare, noting the group had been returning from a summit attempt when caught in exposed terrain during rapidly deteriorating conditions.
The tragedy highlights the underestimated dangers of afternoon thunderstorms in the Eastern Alps, where lightning kills an average of 5 hikers annually according to the Austrian Alpine Club. Meteorologists confirmed an unstable air mass had triggered intense electrical activity across the region Sunday, with strikes occurring minutes after the first visible storm clouds formed.
Preliminary investigations reveal the victims—residents of Innsbruck—were seasoned mountaineers carrying proper gear but lacked lightning-safe shelter options on the barren ridgeline. Their deaths mark Tyrol’s first fatal lightning incident since 2021, when a shepherd perished near the Ötztal glacier.
