Lightening strikes kill at least 67 in Bihar, UP

Lightning has killed at least 67 people, mostly farm laborers working in fields, across the eastern state of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

According to disaster management officials, lightning strikes are relatively common in India during the monsoon rains. But this week’s toll is particularly high.

An overnight storm in Bihar killed at least 47 people and injured another 22, mostly in rural areas. “We have confirmation of 47 deaths and fear the toll may go up as reports are pouring in from other districts,” Anirudh Kumar, a senior official at Bihar’s diaster management agency, told AFP.

In Naubatpur block in Bihar a lightning strike left open a 100-foot (30.5 metre) crack on the ground.

“The crack due to lightning is 100 feet and 8 feet deep,” district magistrate Sanjay Kumar Agarwal confirmed to The Hindustan Times.

Authorities in the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh said 20 people were killed over two days. The state government, which announced a compensation of Rs 4 lakh to the victims’ families, has issued an advisory to people to stay away from fields during thundershowers.

Lightning kills thousands of Indians every year, most of them farmers working the fields. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, in 2014 lightening strikes killed 2,500 people in India.