One person was injured when lightning hit a tree in Auckland Thursday evening, knocking it over and into two houses.

Fire Service northern communications shift manager Scott Osmond said the lightning struck the tree in Point England as a thunderstorm swept through Auckland during the evening.

St John Ambulance was still at the scene and the condition of the person was unknown at this stage.

At Stanmore Bay, 12 houses were damaged by trees hit by lightning, Mr Osmond said.

WeatherWatch.co.nz also received a confirmed report of a phone landline which exploded after a lightning strike. No one was inured.  The strike came within half an hour of a special WeatherWatch.co.nz Storm Alert issued for the city warning of thunderstorms, hail and localised damaging winds. 

The alert warned people to remain indoors until thunder had passed due to the aggressive nature of the storms coming in from the Tasman Sea, as part of the polar blast hitting New Zealand.

Hail was unusually heavy for Auckland, turning roads into icing rinks a number of times this evening in some suburbs.

Isolated thunderstorms continued overnight.

Homepage image / File, John Sweden

– WeatherWatch.co.nz & APNZ