1 dead, 13 injured after lightning strike at New Jersey archery range

One person was killed and 13 others were injured when lightning struck an outdoor archery range in New Jersey, according to police.

The incident occurred just before 7:15 p.m. on Wednesday at the range, located on Perrineville Road in Jackson Township. Emergency responders arrived to find a 61-year-old man receiving CPR and several other victims being triaged.

The 61-year-old man succumbed to his injuries, while 13 others suffered injuries ranging from burns to general complaints of not feeling well, according to Jackson Township Police. The victims range in age from 7 to 61 and were taken to local hospitals for treatment.

Emergency medical services and fire crews from multiple local and surrounding agencies responded to the scene.

The incident follows a lightning strike that injured 20 people, including 12 children, near a lake in South Carolina last month. That incident happened on June 24 near the beachside of the Lake Murray dam in Lexington County, just outside Columbia. All injuries were described as non-life-threatening.

According to the National Weather Service, lightning strikes kill an average of 20 people each year in the United States and injure hundreds more. Some survivors are left with long-term neurological effects.

So far in 2025, 12 lightning-related deaths have been reported in the United States, including two each in New Jersey, North Carolina, and Georgia, and one each in Mississippi, Missouri, Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, and Ohio.