An Australian farmer has found six cows lying dead in a row, in what experts have attributed to a lightning strike.

The animals were discovered next to a barbed-wire fence on a paddock in Queensland last week, a few days after a heavy storm.

The cows' owner, Derek Shirley, said he was "stunned" by the find.

Dr Sabrina Lomax, a livestock expert from Sydney University, said she believed all six animals had been touching the fence when they died.

"In these sort of freak accidents, it was just an inconvenient placement of the animals in regards to the lightning strike," said Dr Lomax, an animal behaviour and welfare researcher.

"They would have died instantly from a massive heart attack."

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