A Lancashire man was inches away from being struck by lightning whilst on holiday in Turkey.

Craig Marshall was standing at his balcony door filming the thunderstorm going on over his resort when the lightning struck his balcony.

Craig, from Leyland, was flung across his hotel room due to the energy from the strike.

The 39-year-old and his family had been enjoying a week-long trip to Lara beach, in the Antalya region of the country, when the bolt struck his first-floor balcony at 10pm on Thursday, July 25.

Craig was enjoying watching the spectacle as the bolt narrowly missed him, and he believes that it could have rebounded off a nearby gazebo. 

Having already been warned by his wife to come inside, the self-described dopamine junkie said he felt stupid not listening to her advice.

Craig said: “The kids were upset prior and were a bit scared.

“I was saying oh it's fine and then that happens, and then there is ridiculous drama and you end up with egg on your face.

“It was mental, luckily I wasn’t looking straight at it, or I would be on the cataracts list.”

His family were quick to react, offering their support after being startled by the event.

But the father of two has learnt his lesson from the event and stayed up until the early hours that night researching the realities of lightning strikes. 

“It was good to overcome the myths such as lightning only hitting the tallest thing in the room.”

The mechanical engineer was staying 500 yards away from the sea as a major storm rolled in, exacerbated by a prolonged period of extreme heat.

He added: “This was our last night, we started at 47 degrees and it was in the 40s for the most part of the week.

“Reading about it afterwards you understand the severity of the heat and the resulting storms.”

Another customer at the hotel broke their leg whilst rushing to get inside from the storm, whilst a tree at a neighbouring hotel was struck, he said.