When lightning hit a telegraph pole in his street, a Minster man was flung from his computer as electricity coursed through his home.

Peter Green, 50, has told how he was online at his home in Kent Avenue as a storm hit.

The bolt disintegrated his phone line, exploded a socket in his front room and cut the power to his and surrounding properties.

It also fried the device he was using as well as another one converting music files in his bedroom.

And he said the telephone wire went dangerously close to a gas boiler and he fears it could have caused it to explode.

He said BT have since changed the route of the cable in light of these concerns so it does not run so close to the boiler.

Mr Green said: “It frightened the life out of me. A brilliant, blue flash came from the monitor which threw me across the room.

“It probably wasn’t the best thing to do looking back but I was too frightened to be in the bungalow after it happened so I was stood outside in the pouring rain because I didn’t know if it was safe to be in there.”

The 50-year-old suffers from ischaemic heart disease and had a heart attack in 2007 and also suffers from severe panic and anxiety and said he is amazed the electricity strike did not cause him fresh problems.

He said he was unable to use an alarm box which is there if he ever has an emergency because it is connected to the mains.

Despite being hit by the surge of electricity, Mr Green said he has felt no ill effects other than some tingling.