Seven horses were killed by a lightening strike during a freak storm on Thursday afternoon in Maarheze in  Noord-Brabant.

The animals were in a meadow owned by Jack Ogier who looks after retired horses and horses whose owners can no longer stable them. He was just about to bring in the winter feed when the storm broke.

‘It all happened so fast. Suddenly I couldn’t even hear the tractor for the sound of hail stones pelting down and the wind. I have never seen a storm like it,’ he told local broadcaster Omroep Brabant.

Ogier said he saw a ‘fiery sky’ from which lightening bolts shot out in all directions. He immediately realised the horses he saw lying down had been struck by lightening. ‘I think the lightening went from one horse to next. I am probably lucky that not more were hit,’ he told the broadcaster.

Some of the horses’ owners came to Maarheeze to say goodbye. ‘It was a very black day yesterday. My only consolation is they didn’t suffer,’ owner Rosalin Taormina said.

‘The other horses are upset,’ Ogier said. ‘They were pals with some of the horses that were killed and now they have to do without.’