  We investigate the gamma-ray and X-ray properties of the flat spectrum radio
quasar PKS 2149-306 at redshift z = 2.345. A strong gamma-ray flare from this
source was detected by the Large Area Telescope on board the Fermi Gamma-ray
Space Telescope satellite in 2013 January, reaching on January 20 a daily peak
flux of (301$\pm$36)$\times$10$^{-8}$ ph/cm$^2$/s in the 0.1-100 GeV energy
range. This flux corresponds to an apparent isotropic luminosity of
(1.5$\pm$0.2)$\times$10$^{50}$ erg/s, comparable to the highest values observed
by a blazar so far. During the flare the increase of flux was accompanied by a
significant change of the spectral properties. Moreover significant flux
variations on a 6-h time-scale were observed, compatible with the light
crossing time of the event horizon of the central black hole. The broad band
X-ray spectra of PKS 2149-306 observed by Swift-XRT and NuSTAR are well
described by a broken power-law model, with a very hard spectrum ($\Gamma$$_1$
$\sim$ 1) below the break energy, at E$_{\rm\,break}$ = 2.5-3.0 keV, and
$\Gamma$$_2$ $\sim$ 1.4-1.5 above the break energy. The steepening of the
spectrum below $\sim$ 3 keV may indicate that the soft X-ray emission is
produced by the low-energy relativistic electrons. This is in agreement with
the small variability amplitude and the lack of spectral changes in that part
of the X-ray spectrum observed between the two NuSTAR and Swift joint
observations. As for the other high-redshift FSRQ detected by both Fermi-LAT
and Swift-BAT, the photon index of PKS 2149-306 in hard X-ray is 1.6 or lower
and the average gamma-ray luminosity higher than 2$\times$10$^{48}$ erg/s.
