Lightning kills 16 persons in Bangladesh
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At least 16 people were killed and a score others injured by lightning during a tropical storm in seven districts of Bangladesh on Sunday, hospital and police sources said.
Doctor Debaprada Roy of the Sadar Hospital in Habiganj district, 163 km northeast of capital Dhaka, told Xinhua by telephone that six persons were killed and four others injured in lightning in the district during the tropical storm, which swept through the district on Sunday noon.
He said some of the victims died on the way to hospital and the others died after arrival at the hospital. Five head of cattle also died in the lightning in the district.
All the persons, including two women, were hit by lightning in their farm land as they were harvesting paddy crop.
Two brothers were killed in Mymensingh district, 122 km north of capital Dhaka, on Sunday morning by lightning as they went to farm land to bring their cattle during the storm, which lashed Haluaghat sub-district in the morning. Nazir Ahmed, police officer in the Haluaghat police station while talking to Xinhua by phone confirmed that the persons died at the Ashkipara village.
Two other persons were killed and eight others injured in Sunamganj district, 296 km northeast of capital Dhaka, by thunderbolt on Sunday morning, according to the private television channel NTV.
In Bagerhat district, 178 km southwest of Dhaka, one farmer was struck dead when he was cutting grass in the field, and two other persons were killed in their homestead, the private news agency UNB reported.
Another three persons were killed by lightning in Gaibandha, 268 km northwest of Dhaka, Narayanganj, 17 km southeast of Dhaka and Pirojpur district, 185 km southwest of Dhaka.
The sources said the storm flattened thousands of houses in the districts, uprooted trees and leveled electric poles disrupting the power supply in those sub-districts. The storm caused heavy damage to standing paddy crops.
