The boy was standing under a tree when lightning hit and an electrical current transferred to a chain necklace around his neck, a law enforcement official said.
A group of teenagers were in Central Park Thursday afternoon when a thunderstorm swept across the lawn near 100th Street on the east side of the park.
Crystal Mateo, 17, saw one of the boys leaning up against a tree, apparently taking shelter, while his friends sat on the grass nearby.
There was a flash and a boom, and when Ms. Mateo looked again, the boy who had been leaning against the tree lay on his back on the ground, unmoving. His friends were frantic, calling for help and trying to revive him.
“It was scary,” Ms. Mateo said. “I was crying.”
The boy survived.
When lightning hit the tree, electrical current transferred from the tree to the boy’s metal chain necklace, but the boy, 15, received only minor burns, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
The boy was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and was in stable condition, the official said. The boy’s name was not released.
It may have seemed like a miracle that the boy survived, but the vast majority of Americans struck by lightning — about nine in 10, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — live to tell about it. Still, lightning is among the leading causes of weather-related deaths in the United States.
From 2009 to 2018, an average of 27 Americans a year were killed by lightning, according to the National Weather Service. In 2021, a 13-year-old boy was on the sand at Orchard Beach in the Bronx when he was fatally struck.
The strike on Thursday occurred as a band of heavy thunderstorms moved through the area, packing stiff winds and hard rain and causing delays at the local airports.
The area where the strike occurred was roped off with yellow police tape for about an hour afterward as showers continued to pelt the park.
Near where Ms. Mateo had seen the boy stands a towering elm, about 75 feet tall. At its base, water bottles, cookie packages and a bag of chips were scattered beside a volleyball, as if a picnic had been abandoned suddenly.
By 5:15 p.m., the storm had passed, and people were walking their dogs in the sun.
