This is the terrifying moment two friends were almost struck by a huge bolt of lightning.

Nick Panayiotou and Daniel Dudman were filming an electrical storm over Oyster Bay in Sydney, Australia when the lightning hit just metres from where they were standing at a boat shed.

"Oh my god..holy !" the men are heard shouting amid the deafening sound of the storm.

The pair, who are still shaken by the incident, had only just decided not to take their boat out on to the water.

"It's unbelievable how lucky we are," they told Channel 7.

Australia was hit by thousands of lightning strikes last weekend, with the storms leaving more than 50,000 homes and businesses without power.