Brecon Beacons: Lightning strike on Pen y Fan kills two men and injures two others

Four people were hospitalised following separate lightning strikes on the mountain

Kashmira Gander
Monday 06 July 2015 11:01 BST
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Pen y Fan, where a man was struck by lightning
Pen y Fan, where a man was struck by lightning

Lightning strikes on Pen y Fan on the Brecon Beacons mountain range have killed two men and injured two others.

The Welsh Ambulance service was alerted to reports that a man had been struck by lightning at around midday on the mountain range in Powys, mid-Wales.

An RAF Sea King helicopter flew the seriously injured men to Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil, around 20 miles from Cardiff, according to a spokesman from the Welsh Ambulance Service.

It remains unclear whether the man was in fact struck by lightning as was reported in the original call to the emergency services, the spokesman said.

Members of the emergency services who attended the scene also found a third casualty on the mountain, who was driven to hospital by ambulance.

One of the three later died, according to Prince Charles Hospital, while the second person who was killed was injured in a separate lightning strike.

The hospital added that one of the victims is receiving specialist care at the burns unit at the Morriston Hospital in Swansea while the other has remained at the Prince Charles.

Mark Jones of Brecon Mountain Rescue was on the mountain when the storm hit and went to help the casualties. He said it was “exceptionally unusual” for several people to be hit in multiple strikes on different peaks.

“I’ve been in Brecon Mountain Rescue for 30 years and I’ve never known anything like this,” he told the BBC. “It was very, very loud."

The identities of those involved in the accident remain unclear, however one of the men is believed to be in his fifties, according to Wales Online.

Additional reporting by PA

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