The railway boy who suffered a 25,000-volt electric shock... and lived!

A teenager was blown 25ft off a railway bridge on to the tracks below by a 25,000-volt electric shock.

Sam Cunningham's friends called emergency services, who alerted the rail network to stop trains on the main line between Manchester and Wigan.

The 16-year-old is now being treated for severe burns in hospital, where experts say he is "lucky to be alive".

Sam was retrieving a rugby ball on the bridge near his home in Wigan on Thursday evening when a charge leapt from overhead powerlines into the steel toecaps of his boots.

He was knocked unconscious by the fall and all his clothes were burned off.

After paramedics arrived Sam regained consciousness and managed to phone his mother Ann.

Miss Cunningham, 40, a health care assistant, said: "I got there within a couple of minutes and all his clothes had been burned off, he was shaking from head to toe.

"All his hair had been singed and smoke was coming from the bandages paramedics had put on his legs. I can't believe that he is still alive - I don't think anybody can."

She said her son could not remember what happened except 'seeing a flash and then feeling himself spinning around'.

The teenager is being treated in the specialist burns unit at Whiston Hospital, Merseyside. He will need skin grafts but is expected to make a full recovery.