At Least 18 Killed As Lightning Strikes Bihar
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At
least 18 people were killed and many others received serious burn injuries
after they were struck by lightning in Bihar on Saturday afternoon.
Authorities from the Disaster Management
Department said, the fatalities were reported from five districts, with Bhojpur
and Saran accounting for the highest number of four deaths each. The other
affected districts are Kaimur, Patna and Buxar, it said. The incident came a
day after eight people were killed in lightning strikes in five districts of
the state. Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar, has however announced a compensation
of Rs 4 lakh to the families of each victim. He also appealed to the people to
remain alert and stay indoors as far as possible during the bad weather.
Noticeably, over 100 people have died due
to lightning strikes in the state in the last one week. Several weather experts
have opined that a combination of above-normal temperatures in eastern Uttar
Pradesh and Bihar and moist southerly winds from the Bay of Bengal led to an
"instability" in the atmosphere, resulting in large-scale incidents
of lightning that killed over 150 people in these two states in the last
fortnight. The IMD director general Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said the states were
alerted about the impending weather pattern.
He said, "We send information to the
state emergency operation centre concerned. Plus our Regional Meteorological
Centre at Patna also shares information with the state disaster management
authority, districts and media”.
