Bankura: One dead in lightning strike

Kolkata: Thundershowers lashed several parts of south Bengal on Thursday morning leaving a woman dead in Bankura’s Ketulpur after she was struck by lightning.

Several districts in South Bengal received rains. Scattered rainfall occurred in East Midnapore, West Midnapore, Jhargram, Bankura, Nadia, Birbhum, North 24-Parganas and South 24-Parganas.

Sima Pal (35) was working in the field in Bankura’s Ketulpur when lightning struck her. She was rushed to the local gramin hospital where she was declared brought dead.

Kolkata also received light rainfall on Thursday morning. South Bengal has registered around 72 per cent rain deficit in this season so far. In June, there has been a substantial rain deficit so far. Contrary to south Bengal, North Bengal has seen 64 per cent excess rainfall in June this year. Monsoon has already set in in south Bengal but the region is yet to receive heavy showers.

The Regional Meteorological Centre in Alipore predicted heavy rainfall in the beginning of July which may compensate for the rain deficit of June to some extent. Some of the districts in south Bengal may witness lightning and thundershowers in the next 24 hours.

The southwest monsoon officially entered some parts of southern Bengal on June 21 but rain remained elusive in most areas of the region towards the end of last week.

The monsoon started covering Kolkata, North and South 24-Parganas, Nadia, Murshidabad and some parts of Hooghly, Howrah, East Burdwan and Birbhum districts of South Bengal from the middle of last week.