“It is very unusual. I’ve heard of cattle having been killed by lightning, but not in such huge numbers,” said Knut Nylend, a warden at the Norwegian Nature Inspectorate (SNO) who came across hundreds of dead animals in a field between Møsvatn and Kalhovd Telemark, Hardangervidda.
The area covered with dead reindeer was around 50 – 80 meters in diameter, according to Nulend.
A hard thunderstorm had covered the area that afternoon, according to the warden the warden said, and the reindeer had been killed by lightening during the storm.
SNO and other authorities have gone to the site to take biological samples from the carcasses.
Hardangervidda has a population of reindeer of around 10,000, according to the Norwegian Wild Reindeer Centre.
VG (Norwegian language)