The dramatic moment a catamaran was struck by a lightning bolt, leaving its passengers stranded at sea overnight, has been caught on camera,

Video filmed on Monday afternoon at Għadira Bay, shows the lightning hitting the vessel, followed by a cloud of smoke rising into the sky.

Claudio Brugali, who was on board at the time, said there was a very strong explosion at around 2.30pm and that there was substantial internal damage to the boat.

"It was an incredible experience," he told Times of Malta. "We were a group of eight Italian people from Bergamo and Brescia on board. We were cooking when the lightning struck.

"All electronic devices were burned as well as the water pump. We were stuck on board all night waiting for help that arrived the next morning that dragged us to the port in the very rough sea.“

He said all electronic devices and the radio were destroyed, the inverters were burnt and the engines would not start. Thankfully, nobody was hurt. 

"The shrouds (pieces of rigging which hold the mast up) did their job well and dumped all the electric current in the water," he said. "Fortunately no one was outside and no one was touching metal components."

He said: “Fortunately we are fine, but we were a little bit scared.”

All the electronic systems on the boat were destroyed. Photo: Claudio Brugali

Diving instructor Hubert Borg filmed the video and shared it on social media on Monday.

He told Times of Malta: “I happened to be filming the lightning storm when I captured the moment it hit the catamaran by accident.”

Mr Borg, who runs Seashell Dive Centre, was returning to shore with a group of Dutch students when the storm began. He dropped them off at the diving centre and was bringing his boat back out into the bay to moor it, when a bolt of lightning hit the jetty on the shore behind him.

“I decided I should probably bring the boat in for the night as the weather was worse than I thought. Once we had finished mooring it, I decided to film the lightning and captured the video. When it struck the catamaran I was nervous as I wasn’t sure if anyone was onboard and if they were OK.”

It was only later when Hubert uploaded the video to his Facebook page that he found out what had happened. “After I uploaded it, a man commented to say it was his boat and he had been onboard at the time. I sent him a private message to check he was OK and he said he was.”