A nine-year-old boy died when a yacht was struck by lightning in Minnesota on Saturday.

The eight people on board the yacht were sheltering from an approaching storm and couldn’t get off the 26ft boat before the lightning hit.

Assistant fire chief Jarry Keppers told the Duluth News Tribune that it took 25 minutes for the first firefighters to arrive at the scene as the yacht was in a very remote area, two miles from any roads.

Keppers said that a seven-year-old boy, who was uninjured because he was on shore during the lightning strike, found his brother facedown in the water.

The crew began CPR, which was continued by the emergency services who managed to get a pulse back. The nine-year-old boy, identified as Luke Voigt, was flown to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The seven others on board were injured, four of whom were taken to hospital with severe but not life-threatening injuries.

Photo of lightning thanks to Leszek Leszczynski.