Lightning strike kills Holiday Brit while swimming

A British tourist has sadly lost his life in extremely rare circumstances while swimming in the sea.

On Monday, May 29, Scott Aaron Seddon a 26- year-old British holidaymaker was killed on the Greek island of Rhodes when he was struck by lightning, according to Rodiaki.

Reports indicate that Mr Seddon, a regular visitor to the island, was swimming in the sea at Agia Agathi, Rhodes at around 1:30 pm while there was a thunderstorm taking place.

Some local reports suggest that the man had been paddle-boarding while he was being filmed by his girlfriend from the beach.

Despite the advice of fellow bathers to get to dry land, he stayed in the water where he was struck by lightning.

Another visitor to the beach that day was Wander Machado, a 47-year-old Brazilian who lives in the area. On seeing Mr Seddon lying in the water, he went in to help, he later explained what happened: “As soon as I got close to him, I saw that he was face down in the water and his face was black!

‘I immediately knew that every second counted and began to pull him to land. I was afraid that I would suffer the same, since it was still raining. But I didn’t stop.

‘When I got him out, I started giving him first aid, massaging him and everything else I knew. The man was still alive, I could hear his heart and it had a pulse. In a short while, the EKAV rescuers arrived and performed all the prescribed resuscitation procedures to keep him alive.’

Emergency services were rapidly at the scene and he was taken to the Archangelos Health Centre. Unfortunately, despite the attention of medics, it was sadly too late to save his life.

Deaths caused by lightning are rare, but certain conditions can increase the odds. Lightening is more likely to strike water than land and is a well-known conductor of electricity, hence swimming while a thunderstorm is occurring is highly discouraged.