AN Astwood Bank businessman narrowly escaped serious injury when lightning struck his house during Sunday's massive storm.

Mr Aubrey Ison decided against decorating his attic bedroom moments before a bolt of lightning blew a hole in the room's ceiling.

The strike hit the house on Evesham Road, Astwood Bank ripping two 10 foot long holes in the roof.

It then travelled down the wall through the television in the room below and along the wall conducted by aluminium foil backing the wallpaper.

It shook the house from top to bottom, loosening tiles on the roof, scorching the walls and melting the nylon curtains.

"The frightening thing is that I went upstairs to paint the ceiling exactly where the hole is now, but decided to do another job because my paint brush had so many bristles missing," he said.