A shocking video has emerged of a child playing outside with an umbrella during a storm when he appears to be hit by lightning.
The 12-year-old boy was filmed holding an umbrella under a drain as it dumped a deluge of water on him during heavy rain in the city of Posadas, Argentina yesterday.
But as he skipped into the sodden garden a lightning bolt struck before the video cuts out.
Mum Carolina Kotur told local media that he survived the harrowing incident.
She said: ‘It was morning, I was with my daughter in the room calming her, because she is scared of lightning.
‘Then the lady who works in my house told me that my son was walking in the rain and I started filming because I was making a joke, and right next to him the lightning struck.
‘Thank God, nothing happened to him.’
The fierce storm caused devastation in the region.
In the Paraguayan town of San Pedro del Parana, 68 miles from the unnamed Argentine boy’s lucky escape, two brothers were not so fortunate during a lightning strike, The Sun reports.
Sinforiano Venialgo Vazquez and Simon Venialgo Vazquez, 43 and 41 respectively, were fatally electrocuted when lightning struck near their home.
Animals were also killed by lightning in the Santa Rosa area, on the Argentine side of the Parana River.
The boy was lucky to survive the lightning bolt because he was doing a number of things that are highly inadvisable during an electrical storm.
Standing under an umbrella can increase your chance of being struck by lightning if it makes you the tallest object in the area.
Holding metal objects – such as umbrella handles – also makes you more vulnerable to lightning strikes because it conducts electricity.
The boy was playing under a drain which dumped a heavy stream of water on top of his umbrella, which shielded him from the deluge
But as he ran back through the water-logged lawn, umbrella above his head, lightning struck in the area
Flash of light: The garden was suddenly flushed in a bright, white light as the lightning struck
It appeared as if the lightning was attracted to his umbrella although it was not clear exactly where it struck. The boy is reported to have survived the potentially deadly ordeal