JHARGHAM: Five people died and 27 others injured in lightning strikes in West Bengal's Jhargram district on Monday, police said. Several parts of the district witnessed lightning strikes accompanied by heavy rain during the afternoon.
Police said that two persons each died in Jambani and Beliabera areas and one in Gopiballabhpur. A paddy field was struck by lightning in Parihati village under Jambani police station area leaving one person dead and two others working with him injured.
Fourteen other workers who are on an adjacent piece of farmland were also injured in the lightning strike. Several others who had been working in nearby fields had gone to a bus passenger shelter after the rain started, police said.
However, the shelter was hit by lightning that left one person dead and six others, including two children, injured. In Dhanghari village under Beliabera police station area, two women in their mid-30s lost their lives and five others were injured when lightning struck the paddy field in which they were working, police said.
Police said that a 48-year-old man also died in lightning strike in Mahuli village under Gopiballabhpur police station when he was going to fetch his cow from a field. All the injured people were hospitalised.