Pen y Fan, seen from Corn Du. Photo: Herby CC-BY-SA-3.0
Two people have died and two others are in hospital after they were struck by lightning on south Wales’s highest mountain range today.
The walkers were caught in electrical storms on the Pen y Fan range in the Brecon Beacons national park about noon today.
Two of them were airlifted to Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil by an RAF Sea King helicopter from RMB Chivenor in Devon.
Another person was hit in a separate lightning strike and taken to hospital, along with a fourth person. Two of the walkers died in hospital.
South Wales’s four mountain rescue teams, Brecon, Longtown, Central Beacons and Western Beacons, worked with the Welsh Ambulance Service and RAF crews to treat the injured walkers and evacuate them from the mountains.
A spokesperson for Prince Charles Hospital said: “As a result of two separate lightning strikes today in the Brecon Beacons, we can confirm that two people have died, another has been transferred to Morriston Hospital [in Swansea] because of burns and one other person continues to receive treatment at Prince Charles Hospital.”
At 886m (2,907ft), Pen y Fan is the highest mountain in south Wales, with the neighbouring Corn Du second highest at 873m (2,864ft).
