A ten-year-old girl narrowly escaped death having been struck by lightning through the double-glazed window in her attic.

Erin Moran was leaning against her attic window watching the storm rage outside when the bolt of lightning struck with a huge bang. The strike shot through the glass leaving a nickel-sized hole, went down through her arm and left her body through her right big toe before scorching the carpet.

Erin's mother and father, Rhian and Mark, immediately brought her to the hospital where she was treated for shock.

"Erin's a very lucky girl," said Mark, speaking to the Daily Mail.

"There was an almighty crash and I heard Erin scream. I just thought she had been frightened by the bang but when I went upstairs I could see she had been shocked.

"I could smell burning and Erin was complaining that her arm and her toe was hurting.

"I could see the scorch mark on her arm and I realized she had been struck by lightning."

The lightning went right through her. The doctors were astounded. The first to see her just said, 'Wow!'"
The bolt of lightning hit three homes in along the Moran's street in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales. Their neighbor Wayne Cunningham said "It was ferocious, like a bomb."

An expert in lightning at the University of Florida, Professor Martin Uman said being struck by lightning through a window is "very rare". He said "What saves people from getting killed is that the voltage is so high that it just flashes over the skin…There probably wasn't much current, which made it easier to survive."

An Institute of Physics spokesperson said, 'The effect lightning has when it strikes an individual is hugely variable, depending on the strength of the lightning and any objects in its course.

'The effect is similar to the shock you would receive if you put your finger into a plug socket, resulting in the flow of an electric charge through your body.'