Scottish man Kris Owens has been backpacking around Australia for several months, arriving in the beautiful seaside town of Byron Bay on December 5. Owens was walking home from a night out when a lightning bolt struck right behind him.

Temperatures were high in the area, but Owens wasn’t banking on getting caught up in a thunderstorm.

The Scot says: “I was making my way home from a reggae night at the Byron Beach Hotel around 2am when I was caught in the middle of an intense lightning storm. Thinking it would be a good idea to record my possible death for my mum, I got my phone and started to record, and captured the following footage. I have since found out that someone was struck by lightning and lost their life last night and it was a pretty brutal storm.” Credit: Instagram/Kris Owens via Storyful