Lightning strikes kill at least 67 people in monsoon-hit India

At least 67 people have lost their lives in India due to lightning strikes as the annual monsoon rains drench the country, officials say.

According to the country’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), lightning strikes killed at least 47 people, including women and children, during an overnight storm in different parts of the eastern Bihar state in East India and wounded 22 others, mostly in rural areas.

“We have confirmation of 47 deaths and fear the toll may go up as reports are pouring in from other districts,” said Anirudh Kumar, a senior official at Bihar's disaster management agency, on Wednesday.

Lightning strikes are fairly frequent in Bihar during the monsoon season which commenced from the second week of June to October. The downpours that started earlier this week were the first of this monsoon season.

Authorities in the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh, located in northern parts of India, also reported that 20 more people lost their lives due to lightning strikes over the past two days.

According to the country’s National Crime Records Bureau, back in 2014, over 2,500 Indians were hit by lightning and died.

Every year, lightning claims the lives of thousands of Indian people, most of whom are farmers working in the fields.

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