Harry Potter scar

A schoolgirl was left with a Harry Potter-style scar after she was hit by a lightning bolt in a thunderstorm.

Erin Moran, 10, was sitting by an attic window watching the storm when the lighting struck right above her home in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales.
It hit the glass, went into Erin's left arm - leaving a scar - shot through her body and exited through her right big toe before leaving a scorch mark on the bedroom carpet.

The bolt left a spark-shaped scar on her arm in the same way that the boy wizard Harry Potter is left with a lighting bolt scar.
Erin was taken to hospital after being hit on Monday night but was well enough to be released home after just three hours.

She was left with the jagged scar on her arm to show her friends. Her relieved father Mark, 40, said: 'It was a miracle - Erin is a very lucky little girl. It is amazing. The lightning went right through her and she has the scar to prove it.'
Erin was upstairs watching the storm at the family home when she was struck.
Mark said: 'There was an almighty crash and I heard Erin scream. I just thought she had been frightened by the bang but when I went upstairs I could see she had been shocked.
'I could smell burning and Erin was complaining that her arm and her toe was hurting.
'I could see the scorch mark on her arm and I realised she had been struck by lightning.'
Mark and his wife Rhian, 40, took her to hospital while the fire brigade arrived to check if there had been any damage to their three-storey house.
BBC technician Mark said: 'Erin was in clinical shock for about an hour but after that she went back to being her cheery self.
'But the doctors were astounded - the first doctor who looked at her just said: "Wow!"

'They took photographs and doctors from other departments were turning up on the ward to say ''Do you mind if we have a look at her burn mark?'' They took blood and did other tests but after three hours they let her home.
'She is very excited about it now - she couldn't wait to go to school to tell all her friends.'
The lightning scar quickly faded so Erin took in the pictures taken at Prince Charles hospital in Merthyr Tydfil.



















 Harry Potter has a scar on his forehead shaped like a lightning bolt - the result of a 'Killing Curse' striking him when he was an infant.
Father-of-two Mark said: 'The firemen couldn't believe it - I told them: "It proves there is a God up there''.'

The double glazed attic window was left with a hole the size of a 5p piece where the lightning bolt passed through it.
The lightning bolt hit three homes in the street. Neighbour Wayne Cunningham, 49, said: 'It was ferocious.'
He added: 'The sky went as black as the ace of spades, the cat shot under the stairs and then a massive explosion rang out.

'I've never heard anything like it. It was like a bomb and all our electricity went out - our mains box was fried.'

Andy Mathven, of the South Wales fire service investigation team, said: 'This is the first incident like this I've investigated in 23 years in the job.
'The lightning cracked an upper window of a double-glazed unit and caused an entry and exit point. There was also a small mark on the carpet which I assume was the exit point after it had gone through the young lady.'
Scientists said it was impossible to estimate the voltage that passed through young Erin but said it would be 'considerable'.
An Institute of Physics spokesperson said, 'The effect lightning has when it strikes an individual is hugely variable, depending on the strength of the lightning and any objects in its course.
'The effect is similar to the shock you would receive if you put your finger into a plug socket, resulting in the flow of an electric charge through your body.'