A man narrowly escaped with his life when lightning struck at Flamingo Land.

Theme park guard David Glanville, from Goathland, was thrown to the ground, but was merely shaken up by the incident.

The park was temporarily out of action when the power went off - but quick-thinking staff had already stopped many of the rides when they spotted the storm approaching.

Spokesman Mark Crane said: "Fortunately no one was trapped - once the storm had passed and we had run through our safety checks the rides were back in operation after about an hour."

Updated: 11:18 Thursday, May 03, 2001