Footballer Dies After Lightning Strike During Match; Horrifying Incident Caught on Camera | VIDEO
A football match in southern Thailand turned into a nightmare on Tuesday when lightning struck the pitch mid-storm, killing one player and injuring a dozen others. Video of the moment is already circulating online, and it’s brutal to watch — rain hammering down, players scrambling, then a bolt slams into the ground and flames shoot up from where it hit.
Safwan Awae, 24, was struck during the Golok Cup regional tournament at Santiphap Stadium in Narathiwat province. He didn’t survive.
Spectators ran onto the field to try to help him the moment he went down. Emergency crews got him to hospital, but it was too late. “Although the emergency medical team made every effort to save him, the victim succumbed to severe injuries sustained in the incident,” police chief Thun Sirikhunt said.
Twelve others were hurt in the strike, including Malaysian footballer Alif Ezzahan Zulkifli, who was on the pitch at the time.
What makes it harder to stomach is the timing Awae had only just signed with FC Yala, who play in Thailand’s League 3 Southern Region, days before the tournament. The club posted its condolences on Facebook: “Indeed, we belong to Allah, and indeed, to Him we will return. Condolences to the family of Safwan Awae, the new player of FC Yala.”
🚨 TRAGIC NEWS: Thai footballer Safwan Awae has sadly passed away after reportedly being struck by lightning during a Kolok FA Cup match in Thailand. 💔
— Pitchoral ⚽️ (@Pitchoral) August 5, 2026
Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with his family, friends, teammates, and everyone affected by this heartbreaking…
Warning: the footage circulating from the incident is graphic. Viewer discretion advised.
People online seem genuinely shaken by it not just that someone died, but how instant it was. You can hear the screaming in the clips the second the bolt hits, players and spectators alike realizing what just happened in real time.
It’s a grim reminder of something sports scientists have flagged for years: open fields are lightning magnets. A study looking at lightning accidents across Europe between 2010 and 2019 found that roughly one in ten lightning accident victims were struck at a stadium, sports ground, or leisure facility — and the overwhelming majority of those were on soccer pitches specifically. Makes sense when you think about it: flat, open, no real cover, and the players themselves (plus the goalposts) end up being the tallest conductive points around during a storm.
This isn’t the first time it’s happened, either. In 2024, a lightning strike hit a regional match in Huancayo, Peru, killing defender José Hugo de la Cruz Meza and injuring four of his teammates.