A middle-aged man died after he was struck by lightning while walking across a gas station parking lot in Wisconsin during a severe storm, police said.
The unidentified man, believed to be in his 40s, was fatally struck by a lightning bolt on Wednesday evening at a Kwik Trip gas station in Waukesha, police said.
A person called 911 around 7.45pm, reporting that a man was down and they were ‘unsure if he was breathing,’ the Waukesha Police Department said.
The victim, who is believed to be an out-of-state resident, also called first responders when it happened, CBS 58 reported.
He is believed to have been hit with the surging strike while walking across the parking lot, according to a preliminary investigation.
Police said that witnesses, as well as physical evidence at the scene ‘were consistent with a lighting strike’.
Medics found the man unresponsive and took him to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
His death comes as a number of tornadoes and grapefruit-sized hail have battered the Midwest in recent days.
At the time of the incident, the area was experiencing heavy rainfall, thunder and lightning.
The Waukesha Police Department said they are working with the medical examiner to determine an identification for the man, as well as the cause of death.
The Daily Mail contacted the Waukesha Police Department and the Waukesha County Medical Examiner for comment.
Severe thunderstorms started tearing through Wisconsin, Iowa, and Kansas on Tuesday night.
When lightning strikes a human, it immediately damages the cardiovascular and nervous systems.
About 90 percent of victims survive, but are known to suffer life-long injuries and disabilities as a result, according to University Hospitals.
The incident comes just weeks after a beloved Florida middle school teacher described his experience after being struck by lightning.
James Fernandez, 42, was on a mountain biking trip to Peru in December 2025 when he and his friend Yuri Botelho, 36, were struck by a bolt from the sky.
The friends were on a guided downhill excursion high in the Andes when a sudden storm rolled in out of clear skies.
Botelho was killed instantly, while Fernandez was thrown fifteen feet from his bike.
He woke on the ground unable to move and told his tour guide, who had frozen in panic, to get help.
Fernandez survived, but the impact and resulting crash left him with catastrophic spinal cord damage and multiple neck fractures, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down.
‘This is where I’m at right now. It could change. I hope it changes. But if it doesn’t, I have to accept and find ways to keep living, right?’ he told the Tampa Bay Times.
Breaking news…. updates to follow.
