Lighting struck and injured 10 people who were taking shelter from a powerful thunderstorm under a tree in Dorchester in the Boston area. The victims, spectators of a soccer game, were forced to seek shelter from the violent storm which swept across the region.

All the victims suffered severe burns and were rushed to the nearest hospital, local authorities said. All the victims were males; the youngest of them was a 13-year-old boy and the oldest was in his 40s. According to eyewitnesses, some of the victims were given cardiopulmonary resuscitation as the ambulances left the scene of the accident to the hospital.

Michael Bosse, an EMS deputy supervisor, said at a news conference that the tree under which the victims took shelter was the tallest object in that area.

"I've been on the job 27 years, and I've never had 10 people struck by lightning at once," said Bosse according to Boston.com

The merciless thunderstorm struck yesterday at about 3:30 p.m. at Franklin Field in Dorchester where a men’s soccer game was taking place. The storm dumped nearly an inch of rain in less than an hour, the National Weather Service said. The powerful winds downed trees and power lines in the Boston area.

Another person was injured when lighting stuck a restaurant in Hingham. The traffic was jammed after a part of Interstate 93 near Columbia Road got flooded.