A year after a lightning strike on Lidingö left two teenage football players critically injured, the community reflects on the harrowing event and the resilience that followed. IFK Lidingö's club manager, Markus Karlsson, recalls the intense days of uncertainty and the relief when the boys' lives were no longer in danger. The incident, which shook Sweden, highlighted the importance of crisis preparedness and the support from the community and authorities.
A Year After the Dramatic Lightning Strike on Lidingö: A Community's Resilience
A Year After the Dramatic Lightning Strike on Lidingö: A Community's Resilience
When the lightning struck, two young football players were nearly lost. For two days, the outcome was uncertain. "Terrible," says IFK Lidingö's club manager Markus Karlsson, who still struggles to articulate his feelings a year after the incident. "How would we as a club have moved forward?"
Over 7,000 lightning strikes in one day.
More than 900 of them in the Stockholm area, and at least 100 on Lidingö—in less than an hour.
This is how SMHI summarized August 29 last year.
A day Markus Karlsson, club manager of IFK Lidingö football club, will likely never forget.
Nor the days that followed.
The club awaited news: would the teenage boys severely injured by the lightning survive?
"The hardest part was those first days. Handling it. The wait was extremely stressful," says Markus Karlsson today, a year after the improbable accident.
How the Lightning Strike Happened
Rewinding the clock, it's just before 7 PM on Thursday, August 29, 2024. Summer is drawing to a close, schools are back in session, and the evenings are getting darker.
This particular day had been quite sunny and warm, but suddenly—without warning—dark clouds rolled in.
On the Högsätra BP football field on Lidingö, some boys born in 2008 had arrived early for their training. When the sky opened up, they took shelter from the rain in a grove beside the field.
Then everything happened quickly.
It started to lightning. The teenagers' coach, who was a few minutes late, informed the players via WhatsApp that the training was canceled and everyone should leave. But before the boys could get anywhere, lightning struck along one of the trees in the grove.
Eight people were thrown to the ground. Three of them, who were closest to the tree, were electrocuted and severely injured.
Others were thrown away just by the force.
Parents and players from other teams, who had finished training but hadn't left yet, rushed over. SOS was alerted, CPR was started, and soon the fire brigade and ambulance arrived.
When Markus Karlsson heard that lightning had struck Högsätra, he also headed there, but he knew nothing about what had actually happened. The scene that met him, he described to DN as "almost a war zone."
"Hard to Describe the Feelings"
"When I got here, the ambulance and fire brigade were already here. It was completely full, I didn't know what to do. There were police officers, firefighters, and an ambulance helicopter that had just taken off."
A year later, Markus Karlsson still finds it hard to put into words what he felt at that moment.
"No, I mean, I don't know... You don't know what to do. Everything was already in motion, so it was just a matter of waiting really. It's very hard to describe and remember how those feelings were. But there was a lot going on."
The incident shook all of Sweden, and it wasn't long before Markus Karlsson's phone was buzzing with media interest. A youth center became a sort of coordination hub for crisis management, where representatives from the club, the municipality, Bris, the Red Cross, and a priest gathered, receiving parents among others.
"We stayed until midnight. Then we went home, and that night was not great."
Relief After Hospital's Announcement
Markus Karlsson describes the following days as "terrible." The club was involved in crisis management, but everything unrelated to the boys—such as media contact—became "secondary."
The day after the accident, one of the three seriously injured teenagers was discharged from the hospital, but the other two remained.
After another day, Karolinska announced that the injuries were not life-threatening.
"The relief... You think 'how would we as a club have moved forward, how would it have been today, if someone had lost their life,'" says Markus Karlsson.
How have you as a club handled all this?
"We were very careful with how we handled it. The municipality was a great help. We gathered the affected team and the teams that trained nearby, who saw all this, and those who wanted to talk to a priest could do so."
Immediately after the accident, some training sessions were also canceled and moved, while the crisis group kept in touch with players, leaders, and other club members.
How the Teenage Boys Are Doing Today
The player who was most severely injured remained in the hospital until October, but today the affected boys are doing well, according to Markus Karlsson. Two of the three who were seriously injured are still playing in the team.
"It's so incredibly, incredibly nice that it went so well. Today it feels like it happened ages ago," says the club manager.
He further says that he, and perhaps the entire club, have gained a bit more perspective after the accident.
"It's easy to think that football is important. We have a match this weekend, where a boys' team must win to avoid relegation. But then you also think, 'it's not that important.'"
Markus Karlsson has also taken with him the positive in all the support the club received. From the municipality, from the football world, from the public.
Do you have any advice for other clubs?
"Yes, to prepare. Many clubs don't even have an office. So that you know what to do if something happens. It's good to have the phone number to the municipality's coordination center and such. And it doesn't have to be something like this, it could be, for example, a traffic accident on the way to a cup."