A vendor packs up unsold ribs at the Ribfest food festival in Whitby, Ont., on Sunday, July 15, 2012. A lightning bolt that hit a tent at a food festival with hundreds of people inside sounded like a bomb going off when it struck, said one of the festival-goers. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Doug Ives
July 15, 2012 - 4:23 PM
WHITBY, Ont. - Seventeen people have been hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries after a lightning strike at a food festival in Whitby, Ont.
Event chair Colin O'Regan says the lightning hit a dining tent holding several hundred people at the Whitby Ribfest around 2:30 p.m.
He says emergency officials arrived on the scene within minutes and sent 17 people to two local hospitals.
O'Regan says the lightning storm "came out of nowhere" and that there was no prior sign the weather was about to change.
He says emergency officials at the festival were aware the area was under a severe thunderstorm watch, but thought it wasn't a risk at the time.
He says the festival has been closed early as a result of the lightning strike.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2012