It reports Møre og Romsdal police district.
The women were staying on the mountain Melshornet in Hareid when they were struck by lightning, according to the police.
The badly injured woman was transported to Ålesund hospital.
– They were on a trip to a mountain top, and then there has been a strong weather. The lightning and thunder have come quite quickly and surprisingly, says rescue leader Johann Mannsåker in HRS Southern Norway to Dagbladet.
Relatives have been notified and are being taken care of, the police write.
– We were notified just after 5 pm about this, it was a violent storm with a lot of lightning and thunder. We scrambled what we had of rescue resources, and in the end it was the air ambulance that managed to get up between some lightning and thunder and retrieved the one who was injured along with one of those who had died. The last one has now been taken out of the rescue helicopter, says operations manager Borge Amdam to NRK.
Amdam does not want to comment on the relationship between the women, other than that they were in a tour. The reason is the consideration for the relatives, he states.
LOST THEIR LIFE: In the violent thunderstorm on Sunnmøre on Sunday afternoon, two people lost their lives after being hit by lightning at Melshornet in Hareid. A third person was seriously injured. Photo: Ole-Ottar Karlsen Høgstavoll / Vikebladet Vestposten
view more
He says that the lightning struck on the top of Melshornet – a mountain at just over 800 meters above sea level.
– It was quite dramatic weather conditions. We had several rescue operations, especially south of Sunnmøre and here in Ålesund, says Amdam.
He describes the weather situation as unusual for Sunnmøre.
– This went very tragically here, and we are not used to dealing with such intense conditions as it was.
Several thousand lightning strikes
The main rescue center in southern Norway participated in the rescue operation at Melshornet.
– There was an incredible amount of lightning that was going on during that period, rescue leader Ståle Jamtli in HRS tells Dagbladet.
– It is a great risk to enter the area by helicopter when there is so much lightning, says Jamtli.
There have been several thousand lightning strikes in southern Norway on Sunday afternoon.
In six hours, more than 13,000 lightning strikes were registered, according to the Meteorological Institute’s lightning radar.
Ask people to come down from the mountain
Several rescue operations
After the tragic incident at Melshornet, the police saw themselves forced to issue a warning to people in the mountains.
– Everyone who is on a mountain hike in the county is asked to get down and in safety, Møre og Romsdal police district wrote on Twitter.
The police further said that they had received reports of several people in distress in the mountains.
– Heavy thunderstorms and rain are coming, the police continued.
– Violent storm
To Dagbladet, operations manager Borge Amdam said just before 6 pm that they had three ongoing rescue operations in the mountains as a result of the storm.
– But we fear that the storm will spread north, and want people to get down.
– It is a violent storm, he added.
Also at Sukkertoppen in Ålesund, there has been a rescue operation on Sunday afternoon as a result of the weather. The person has been brought down.
– It came suddenly and with a force that I think surprised most people here in Møre og Romsdal, the police say.
The Norwegian Meteorological Institute has issued a yellow warning for a lot of lightning and thunder in connection with rain showers in Vestland, Møre og Romsdal and Sør-Trøndelag on Sunday afternoon and evening.
–
