One person, reportedly a foreigner, was killed in the lakeside town of Bled by a tree knocked down as Slovenia was battered by fierce storms for the second day running on 19 July. Moreover, two persons were injured in a lightning strike at a campsite near Mozirje in northern Slovenia.

The Kranj Police Department said a tree that snapped in half in Bled killed one person, while severely injuring another, who was airlifted to a hospital. The accident happened on the southern side of the lake, between the Villa Bled hotel and the Zaka campsite.

Public broadcaster TV Slovenija reported that the person killed was a 32-year-old woman and the person injured was a man older than her. The report said both victims were foreign nationals.

A lightning strike at the campsite Forest Camping near Mozirje injured two people and three are in shock, reported the news portal N1. Intervention head Jaka Steblovnik told the news portal that their injuries were not severe.

According to TV Slovenija, the lightning struck near tents of foreign families. The report also cited firefighters that all campers should seek shelter indoors during storms, or at least get into a car and drive to open ground where there is no danger of falling trees.

A fire brigade was also dispatched to the nearby campsite Menina, where a tree fell on two tents and a car, but fortunately nobody was injured.

Moving from west to east, the storm system wreaked havoc virtually across the entire country. Tennis ball-sized hail was falling near Metlika, where over 200 children aged between 8 and 15 were evacuated from summer camps.

South of the town massive hail, measuring about 10cm in diameter, caused a lot of damage on crops, buildings and cars, Metlika Mayor Martina Legan Janžekovič told the STA. Hail was also reported in other parts of the south and southeast.

Thousands were left without electricity, with power companies doing their best to mend the damaged infrastructure.

In Ljubljana, a part of the roof was blown off the Plečnik stadium and onto Dunajska Street. In Celje, a part of the roof was ripped off the football stadium.

Roofs were also blown off many houses across the entire country. In Preddvor, construction scaffolding fell onto the roof of the kindergarten, located below the construction site. Children, who were in the building at the time, were not in danger, because the scaffolding and the solar panels mounted on the roof, penetrated only the top of the roof structure.

The Civil Protection and Disaster Relief Administration said some 900 events were reported between 2pm and 5pm; over 250 were reported to the Celje dispatch centre, over 200 to the Ljubljana dispatch centre, over 150 to the Kranj centre and nearly 80 to the Maribor centre.

Hundreds of fire units were out clearing trees, electrical and telecommunication infrastructure, covering roofs, pumping water from buildings and underpasses, and helping with evacuation efforts.

This is a second strong storm to have hit Slovenia in less than 24 hours, while new storms are rolling across the country and more are forecast to follow.