Man dies after lightning strikes family, including newborn and toddler, on Gold Coast

Updated

A man has died after being struck by lightning while leaving a polling station with his family on the Gold Coast.

The man aged in his 30s and his family - a woman, a baby aged 12 weeks and a boy aged 18 months - were sheltering from an electrical storm in a park near Worongary State School on Delta Cove Drive just before 4pm when they were hit.

The school was being used as a polling booth for the state election, situated in the seat of Gaven.

Paramedics attended to the man at the scene before he was taken to Gold Coast University Hospital in a critical condition.

He died about 7pm.

The woman and children were still in hospital in a stable condition with minor injuries.

Queensland Ambulance Service acting senior operations supervisor Stuart Cutajar said the family had been to the state school to vote and were walking home through a park when the storm struck.

They took shelter under an awning in the park which was struck by lightning.

"There's evidence of the shelter having taken a lightning strike," Mr Cutajar said.

The man then collapsed to the ground, not breathing.

Paramedics responded and commenced CPR as all four were taken to hospital.

The 18-month-old was unconscious and not breathing but regained consciousness before being taken to hospital.

The Bureau of Meteorology's (BoM), meanwhile, has cancelled its severe thunderstorm warning.

Much of south-east Queensland, particularly the Gold Coast, Brisbane and surrounding areas, were battered by storms from about 3.30pm.

Electoral Commission Queensland spokeswoman Carrick Brough said the severe storms could delay the count in some areas.

"It may delay the count, if we don't have power then obviously we can't count through the night so obviously we're looking at alternative arrangements now, transferring the ballot boxes to other polling booths with power and counting them there, things like that," Ms Brough said.

Energex reported about 10,000 properties in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast were without electricity at 10:00pm.

The electricity provider also said there were about 1,500 lightning strikes across the network in the hour to 6pm.

Topics: storm-event, coolangatta-4225, southport-4215

First posted