Boy who survived lightning strike says he 'feels like Superman'

A boy who miraculously survived a direct hit from a bolt of lightning said he “feels like Superman right now” after walking out of hospital in Arizona.

Josiah Wiedman, 13, who was walking home from a skatepark with his friend Javier Tapia when he was hit, told reporters: “It started kinda raining, so I was going home. Then randomly, I felt this burst of heat, then everything went dark.”

Both boys were thrown to the ground by the blast and Mr Wiedman hit his head on the pavement, knocking him unconscious and leaving him with concussion.

Javier, who suffered an all-over “burning sensation” but remained conscious, screamed his friend’s name.

A witness ran over and gave him CPR – a move credited with saving the boy’s life.

Footage captured the moment the lightning bolt hit the pair.

It shows them walking across the park in gloomy weather before a huge bolt from above engulfs them in bright light.

Josiah described the sensation as like “needles constantly being stabbed into me”.

Dr Craig Egan of the Phoenix Children’s Hospital said the electricity that went through Josiah's body caused his heart to stop, the New York Post reported.

“Just enough electricity to temporarily stop the heart,” Mr Egan said, adding: “The CPR is what saved him.”

He was put into an induced coma for three days

"Dang, I survived it," he told Fox News. "I was dead for, like, 15 minutes. Dang. I beat death."

He added: “I feel like I’m Superman right now.”

The chance of being hit by lightning is thought to be around one in 700,000 and around 24,000 people die from lightning strikes around the world every year.