Lightning struck within a close vicinity of a group of students Sunday while on a school mountain climbing trip in Sano, Tochigi Prefecture, slightly injuring six of them, police said.
The lightning struck shortly before 10 a.m. when some 750 students and teachers from Sano Municipal Kita Junior High School were climbing Mount Mikamo.
As the affected students complained of numbness in their legs, the teachers decided to terminate the hiking and all of the students and teachers climbed back down the mountain, the police said.
Thundershowers were observed in and around Sano at the time of the lightning, according to a meteorological station based in nearby Utsunomiya.