Seven people, including four children, killed in lightning strike in central Mexico

The group were believed to be outside working in a field when the storm hit

Lightning runs across the skies of Mexico, near the US border (Getty )

Four children and three women from the same family were killed in a deadly lightning strike in central Mexico on Friday night.

The three unidentified women, aged 19, 32 and 44, were killed in the electrical storm near the town of Mesa Cuata, Guanajuato state in the mountainous Sierra Gordon region as they worked in a field.

The children, who have not been named, were aged three, five, nine and 14 years old.

A 26-year-old woman and another child were also injured when the storm struck, but the state’s Department of Public Safety confirmed that their lives were not in danger.

In a separate incident a 51-year-old man was killed by a lightning strike earlier on Friday while he was shepherding animals in the Ocampo municipality.

Additional reporting by Associated Press