A surfer is in a critical condition after being struck by lightning while surfing on the far north coast of New South Wales.
The Ambulance Service of NSW told ABC News that the man was in the surf when he was struck at Suffolk Park on the north coast of New South Wales.
The man is believed to be in his 30s and was surfing with friends who brought him to shore.
He was taken to Tweed Heads hospital in a critical condition.
I was at home when the storm hit and can vouch for its intensity. Dark clouds moved in fast, it was teeming rain and thunder and lightning rumbled across the sky.
One bolt that struck in particular sounded like a bomb had gone off.
But I thought nothing much of it – we get plenty of freak storms here. It wasn’t until I was getting a coffee up the road and watched three ambulances and a police car scream down the main street that I realised something bad had gone down. Shark attack maybe, but a lightning strike? No way.
I rushed back to the scene to find a news crew; ambos and police attending to the victim while the rain kept bucketing down. It was an eerie sight. I asked a local woman who was nearby if she knew what happened who said, “A guy’s been hit by lightning. I think he was swimming or had a surfboard. He’s in pretty bad shape.” Bloody hell.
Brett Fasso from Byron Bay Board Riders’ Club was holding a junior board riders contest 100 metres from where the man was struck when the storm started and told the ABC he experienced a similar series of events.
“It was just like a really strong, radical front. There was lightning. You could barely see the guys in the water for the rain.”
“We were forced to call the contest off because of the extreme weather.”
Fasso had packed up and left the beach when he heard the gigantic lightning bolt strike.
“I can’t categorically state that [was the bolt that hit the man], but it was loud and really lit up the sky where we were,” he said.
“We didn’t expect anything [as] dramatic as someone struck by lightning.”
What are the odds?
