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Watch as Two Australian Men Have an Encounter With a Lightning Bolt That Was Too Close for Comfort

Watch as Two Australian Men Have an Encounter With a Lightning Bolt That Was Too Close for Comfort

"Dude, don’t go outside."

A bolt of lightning shocked two Australian men when it surged toward them and struck the water in Oyster Bay, New South Wales, mere feet away from them Saturday.

Daniel Dudman uploaded a video to YouTube of the frightening encounter during which he and Nick Panayiotou, a fellow storm watcher, proved to be closer to the action than they would have wished, according to Discovery.com. The two friends were filming a severe thunderstorm at the bay when they first saw bolts of lightning flash through the sky.

“Don't touch anything, man. No. ... Dude, don’t go outside,” one of the friends said to the other in the video as the other friend protested and began to peek outside.

(Content warning: Lots of profanity.)

Seconds later, the two friends saw the lightning bolt strike a few feet away from them and began to panic. The camera shook violently and panned backwards into the boathouse as the two men stumbled back to safety and began screaming and shouting.

"Oh my god! That f***ing hit us!" one of them shouted in the video. "I felt it!"

The two friends had been planning on taking their boat out into the bay that day but decided against doing so at the very last minute, according to 7News in Sydney. Immediately after they made their decision, the lightning bolt struck. Neither one of the men was hurt, although both said that they could tangibly feel the electricity from inside the boathouse.

“That, I reckon, is the scariest thing,” Panayiotou told 7News, adding that the thunder was so loud that it “hurt” him to hear it. "It's unbelievable how lucky we are."

Follow Kathryn Blackhurst (@kablackhurst) on Twitter

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