A man who claims he has cheated death 15 times has told how he survived 14 deadly snake bites and even a lightning strike.

Real-life iron man Euclides Mosquera, 53, from Acandi, in Colombia’s Choco Department, has astonished a series of medics with his amazing ability to survive.

Farmer Euclides says he has been bitten 14 times by venomous snakes, but they could not finish him off.

Then, he was struck by a lightning bolt so massive that it bent and charred the blade of his machete jet black.

Euclides told local media he was first bitten working on a banana plantation in 2010 by a three-metre (10-foot) snake that wrapped itself around his arm.

He told how his feet, arms and tongue began to swell with blood pouring from his mouth.

Euclides said: “As the poison ran through my veins I felt a heat that burned me.”

Just two years later his wife Luz Marina Diaz saw him stagger home after he had been bitten again.

Now, Euclides said, he just seems to be able to shrug them off.

He was also zapped by lightning in 2019 as he worked his farmland during a huge thunderstorm.

Euclides said he had waited for the worst of the storm to pass and went back to cut crops but his workboots were full of rainwater as he wielded the machete.

Suddenly, a huge lightning bolt struck him and he fell to the ground.

He said: “The machete bent and turned black as if it had been put over a candle, I was also burned.”

Astonished medics said that despite the huge shock, none of his vital organs had been damaged.

But Euclides says he still feels the aftereffects of that lightning strike even now.

He explained: “Every time there is thunder, a strong current runs through my body, it feels like it is electrocuting me again, and I began to move like I was dancing reggaeton without music.”

Friends and family, he says, half buried him in a pit in the ground in a bid to tackle the problem and discharge the electricity apparently still in his body.

Euclides said: “There I prayed and told God to take everything bad out of my body and give me life to see my children and grandchildren grow up.”

He says he is encouraged that death has not been able to claim him just yet.

He added that he reckoned he was going to get his wish of seeing his kids and grandchildren grow up, saying: “I wasn’t killed by lightning that struck me, and the snakes have tried their best.”