Lightning strike kills 7-year-old child in Tennessee

A seven-year-old Amish boy was killed when he was struck by lightning while playing with other children under a tree in rural Tennessee, authorities said.

The boy, whose name has not been released, was killed Monday afternoon during a lightning storm near McKenzie, Tennessee, about 100 miles west of Nashville, according to the Weakly County Sheriff's Department.

"The way I understood it, he was playing under a tree and the lightning struck the tree and the electricity hit him," Chief Deputy Mark Black of the sheriff's department told ABC News today.

Black said other children were playing with the boy, whom he described as Amish, but were not injured.

Black said the child was pronounced dead at the scene.

The incident occurred during a thunderstorm Monday in which multiple lightning strikes were reported. The storm also brought torrential rains throughout the central Tennessee area and caused widespread power outages, authorities said.