A 61-YEAR-old man has survived after being struck by lightning at his East Lancashire home.

Kevin Holden, of Deepdale Court, Barrowford, was thrown four feet into the air after being hit by the lightning bolt.

Mr Holden is thought to have survived after grabbing hold of a stainless steel sink which absorbed the charge. He had also been wearing trainers at the time.

However, he was left shaking, his right arm was tingling and he had a ringing headache after the lightning surge left his body.

Mr Holden had opened his back door to watch the lightning in Saturday morning’s storm when his house began shaking and the letter box was rattling with the intensity of the storm.

Remembering his large golfing umbrella was outside, he leaned out to grab hold of it and began opening and closing it to shake off the rain.

But within moments he saw a bright blue flash and was then thrown four feet backwards with the umbrella shooting off into the garden.

Retired Mr Holden instinctively clung onto a stainless steel sink to steady himself then watched as an arc of electricity left his body from his thumb and travelled though the basin.

He said: “It was surreal. I saw this bright blue flash and saw an arc of power come out of my thumb and pass through the sink.

“It was a brilliant flash of light.

“I could only think that I had been struck by lightning.

“I was lucky. I had come into the house and had a pair of trainers on but if I had bare feet it could have been very different.”

Mr Holden rang NHS Direct after the incident around 11.30am who mobilised paramedics and contacted the fire service.

He said: “When paramedics came they were looking for an entry point and an exit wound but they said the lightning must have passed around my body.

"It must have travelled to earth down the sink.”

Paramedics checked his heart rate and his blood pressure once they arrived and told Mr Holden to contact 999 immediately if he felt any irregularities in his heart beat.

Mr said: “I was lucky. I felt like I had hangover, my head was ringing.

“The house must have been right under the eye of the storm.

"The thunder was quite frightening and is as bad as anything I have heard.

“From the window I could see the lightning grounding a few miles away and decided to open my back door and have a look.

“The chances of being hit by lightning are a million to one but your chances go up if you go outside.”

A spokesman for the fire service said: “Paramedics were called and weren’t needed in the end.

"The man said he had a thumping headache.”