Odisha: 3 women killed, 4 critical after lightning strikes house

In a tragic incident, three woman were killed four others sustained serious injuries in a lightning strike in Mayurbhanj district on April 8.

The incident took place yesterday after noon in Karanjia NAC ward 15’s Ankura area when a lightning struck a house filled with people, who had gathered to attend the last rites of a deceased person. The injured women were rushed to a hospital and are undergoing treatment.

Odisha is very prone to lightning strikes.

On March 29, more than 5,000 lightning strikes hit the Bhadrak district in a span of just 30 minutes. “Over 5,000 lightning strikes were reported near Bhadrak’s Basudevpur in just 30 minutes. The vulnerability associated with thunderclouds and how fatal these could be is beyond imagination,” said scientist of Meteorological Centre, Bhubaneswar Umasankar Das.

The sudden natural phenomena have claimed several lives in Odisha in recent years. More than 281 people lost their lives in the state due to lightning strikes in 2021-2022, a slight decrease from the 290 deaths recorded in the previous year.

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