? One man was killed and two others were wounded by lightning on a Sandy Hook beach Sunday.

The 38-year-old Elizabeth man was killed just after noon. Witnesses say the storm descended on the beach at Gateway National Recreation Park quickly, turning a normal summer day into a terrifying ordeal.

?It started hailing and thundering, it was horrible, it was really scary,? says North Arlington resident Ahmed Bakr.

Park police closed the beach after the three people were struck. A National Park Service spokesperson says the incident was very unusual, and that there is no record of anything similar occurring in the past two decades.

The name of the deceased man has not been released pending family notification. The two other victims, described as a man and a woman in their 30s, have been hospitalized. Three additional people in other parts of New Jersey were also struck by lightning Sunday.