Heavy rainfall, lightning claim 9 lives in West Bengal

Kolkata: Heavy rainfall and lightning have claimed at least nine lives in several districts of West Bengal.

Out of the nine people who died since last evening, eight were struck by lightning and one drowned in a pond inundated by heavy showers, official sources said here today.

Five deaths were reported from Hooghly, two from East Burdwan and one from North 24 Parganas as lightning struck them, while one died in Bankura after falling into a pond, a senior official of the state disaster management department said.

An upper trough across Bihar, Jharkhand and Gangetic West Bengal is causing heavy rains in Bankura, East and West Burdwan, East and West Midnapore, South and North 24 Parganas and Murshidabad districts, regional Met director G K Das said.

"Light to moderate rainfall will continue in these places till tomorrow," Das said.

In north Bengal, heavy to very heavy rains will occur in the next two days, he said.

The metropolis, which experienced nine mm rainfall in 12 hours since 5.30 pm yesterday, was cooler at 30 degrees Celsius during the day.

Bankura recorded the state's highest rainfall since yesterday at 18 cm, while Coochbehar in north Bengal recorded 14 cm rainfall, he said.