11 die during lightning strike in India tourist town
A lightning strike in the late evening with strong wind and heavy rain over Kolkata, Eastern India, on May 27, 2020. As many as 60 people died in lightning-related incidents in Indian on Sunday. File Photo by Piyal Adhikary/EPA-EFE
Structural damage caused by a lightning strike in the Indian tourist city of Jaipur killed at least 11 people Sunday evening, officials said.
The lightning hit the Amer Fort at the edge of Jaipur, in India’s northern state of Rajasthan, collapsing a tower wall that buried residents near it.
“When the lightning struck, the tower’s wall collapsed, many people were buried under it,” Shankar Lal Saini, a senior disaster management official in Jaipur, told CNN. “Since the fort is on a hill, when the debris was falling and space reduced, some people also fell into a ditch.”
The deaths were part of the wave of deaths caused by lightning in India on Sunday. Officials said at least 60 died in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Rescuers reported that 14 people were killed in separate incidents after being struck by lightning in parts of Prayagraj. Five died in Kanpur Dehat and Fatehpur, four more in Kaushambi, three in Firozabad and one person died each in Unnao, Hamirpur and Sonbhadra.
Lightning killed another seven people in different districts of Madhya Pradesh on Sunday.
“Saddened by the loss of lives due to lightning in parts of Madhya Pradesh,” India Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Twitter. “The state government will provide all possible assistance to the affected.”