Lightning strike kills more than 300 reindeer in Norway

A freak lightning strike has killed more than 300 reindeer in Norway in what officials have described as an unusually large natural disaster.

The eerie images from the Norwegian Environment Agency show reindeer carcasses scattered across the mountainside on the Hardangervidda mountain plateau.

The agency said 323 animals were killed in the lightning storm on Friday, including 70 calves.

It is not uncommon for reindeer or other wildlife to be killed by lightning strikes, but agency spokesman Kjartan Knutsen said: "we have not heard about such numbers before."

He said reindeer tend to stay very close to each other in bad weather, which could explain how so many were killed at once.

Wildlife officials said it was an unusually large natural disaster. Credit: APTN
The carcasses were left scattered across the mountainside. Credit: APTN