Storm sweeps through Sydney, four people hospitalised after lightning strike

A sudden storm has swept through the East Coast as Taylor Swift’s jet prepared to land in Sydney.

Dramatic time-lapse vision has captured the moment the heavens opened up over Sydney, with the city blanketed in grey clouds and torrential rain sending city workers running for cover.

Four people chose an unlucky location to dodge the deluge as they ran for cover in the Botanic Gardens, near the Opera House, only for lightning to strike the tree they were sheltering under.

Sydneysiders were left running for cover.

A spokeswoman for NSW Ambulance said paramedics were called to the gardens around 12.45 – right when the worst of the storm was hitting the city.

Four patients – a teenage boy, a woman in her 20s, and a man and woman both in their 30s – were being treated by paramedics and were expected to be taken to St Vincent’s Hospital.

As the dramatic weather unfolded anxious Swifties were tracking the star’s jet approach Sydney, but Taylor Swift landed safely in Sydney just before 1.30pm.

A severe weather warning was issued by the Bureau of Meteorology for the city as well as Mid North Coast, Hunter, Illawarra, Central Tablelands, North West Slopes and Plains, Northern Tablelands and Central West Slopes and Plains Forecast Districts.

The slow moving storm is expected to linger into the afternoon, with flash flooding warnings for Taree, Newcastle, Gosford, Sydney, Parramatta and Armidale.

Since midday the NSW State Emergency Service received 87 calls state-wide with 38 in the Sydney metro area.

An SES spokesman said Castle Hill was bearing the brunt of the bad weather with multiple calls for help to flooding homes.

An automatic flash flooding alarm was triggered on Bexley Road in Earlwood.

More to come.