Lightning kills three in Tripura

Agartala, July 25 (IANS) Three people, including a school student, were killed and two others injured when lightning struck them in Tripura Friday, an official said.

Ashes Nath, 13, a class VII student, Ram Bahadur Reang, 45 and Khagendra Reang, 55, were killed on the spot when lightning struck them in separate incidents in Kanchanpur area of northern Tripura.

"Nath was returning home from school while the other two men were working in their rubber gardens when lightning struck them," an official of the state disaster department said.

Reang was a leader of the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist.

The official said that two other people suffered burns due to lightning in different places of the state.

Rain, accompanied by high velocity winds, lightning and thunder, has been lashing northern Tripura since Thursday, damaging crops and uprooting electric poles and trees.

At least 20 people have been killed in lightning strikes this year in Tripura.

Though the four-month-long (June-September) southwest monsoon hit the northeastern region June 10 and spells of rain followed in most parts of the region, comprising eight states, including Sikkim, the rainfall is much below the normal data.

According to physicists, the northeastern region is a lightning-prone area due to its topography. Lightning claims an average of 100 lives every year, especially in March-May.