Four killed due to lightning, heavy rain in three separate incidents

Kolkata: Three persons were killed after being struck by lightning in two separate incidents in the state while another one died after a tree branch fell on him during a thunderstorm on Thursday morning.

Lightning struck two middle-aged man from Mollarpur area of Birbhum and the other from Murshidabad during a heavy thunder storm in the morning. In some districts, mud houses collapsed when heavy wind blew through the area.

Another person from Murshidabad was killed when a tree branch fell on him.

Birbhum police are yet to ascertain the identity of the victims. While in the other incident of lightning, Kalikinkar Ghosh (61), from Bharatpur in Murshidabad was announced dead in the hospital.

In the third incident, Siddique Seikh (60), was killed after a tree branch fell on his head. A thunder storm lashed various South Bengal districts including Burdwan, Birbhum and Murshidabad on Thursday morning.

Several trees fell on the road resulting in the disruption of traffic movement in the districts.

Storm was also reported in Bankura and Nadia. The district administrations took prompt action to restore normalcy following the incident.

There was heavy rainfall in the Asansol area for a couple of hours causing water logging. Many of the roads became inundated.

Durgapur also witnessed a storm accompanied with moderate to heavy rainfall causing inconvenience to the commuters. It started raining in Durgapur at around 6 am. Both train and bus services were affected due to rain accompanied by storm. Some houses and crops were also damaged in the incident.

The rain accompanied by storm, however, gave relief to the people in these districts as it brought down the temperature by a few notches.

The sky remained overcast in North 24-Parganas, South 24-Parganas and also in the city in the morning hours.

According to the weather office, a low pressure trough formed over the state bringing the rain in the districts. There is also a possibility of thunder shower in the South Bengal districts during the evening in the next few days, the Met department predicted. Due to heavy rain and storm, train services were disrupted on Krishnanagar – Berhampore – Lalgola section of Eastern Railway's Sealdah Division since 7.46 am.

One big tree fell between Rejinagar and Beldanga at around 7.55 am. The block was cleared at around 10.20 am by tower van.

Normal trains services were restored at around 10.30 am. Four Sealdah – Lalgola passengers (2 Up & 2 Down) were delayed enroute for one-and-a-half hours, each on an average and 13113 Up Kolkata – Lalgola Hazarduari Express was detained enroute for one hour.