Lightning kills 3 in Garhwa, several injured

Three people died in separate lightning strikes in the Garhwa district on Monday evening. This happened within the area covered by the Meral police station.

Five more people were hurt, including three women. The people who died were Shambhu Baitha, 55, from Lakheya village, Dharmendra Ram, 35, and Tarun Kumar Dev, 18.

The injured are Dilip Kumar from Lakheya village, Rajmati Devi from Kolodohar, Bebia Devi from Geruasoti village, Arvind Kumar from Manika, and Chitri Devi from Arangi village.

All the injured people were taken to the Meral Community Health Centre. Three were pronounced dead there. The others were sent to Garhwa Sadar Hospital for better treatment.

Reports say there were four lightning strikes around 5 pm during thunderstorms in the Meral police station area. The first strike was in Lakheya village. Shambhu Baitha's house was being built when lightning struck. Shambhu Baitha and Dharmendra Ram died. Dharmendra Ram was a builder from Rezo village working on the house. Dilip Kumar, a labourer, was injured.

The second strike was in Meral Purbara Tola. Tarun Kumar Dev, the son of a local politician, died. He was near his old house getting fodder when lightning struck. He was reportedly his father's only son. Officials visited the site and arranged for his body to be taken to Garhwa Sadar Hospital for an examination.

In another incident, three labourers were hurt by a lightning strike near Sugwadamar on the Garhwa-Chiniya road. The injured are Rajmati Devi from Kolodohar village, Bebia Devi from Geruasoti village, and Arvind Kumar from Manika village.

A construction company was building a road on the Garhwa-Chiniya road. They employed labourers from different places. On Monday evening, about 14-15 labourers were sheltering from the rain. They were told to go inside a house. As they were going inside, lightning struck a tree nearby. The shockwave injured three labourers, including two women. They were all taken to Garhwa Sadar Hospital by ambulance. Doctors say they are all stable.