11 die after being struck by lightning in Odisha; toll due to floods, rains rises across India

Heavy rains continued to lash the country, as the death tool due to landslides and floods rose in many places.

Eleven people were killed as lightning struck them in Odisha on Sunday while landslides and floods triggered by heavy rains continued to wreak havoc in many parts of the country killing several people.

A girl with containers wades through flood waters to collect drinking water in Amta area of Howrah district in West Bengal.(AFP)

In Delhi, the skies were partly cloudy with the maximum temperature settling at 34.1 degrees Celsius, normal for this time of the year, while the minimum was recorded at 28 degrees Celsius, a notch above the season’s average.

Humidity levels oscillated between 82 and 62%.

In Odisha, the flood toll rose to seven with the death of three more persons in Jajpur district while lightning strikes in Bhadrak, Balasore and Kendrapara districts claimed the lives of 11 people and left around eight injured.

According to an official, while five died in Bhadrak, three each were killed in Balasore and in Kendrapara districts.

Flood victims wade through water after collecting relief materials in Amta area of Howrah district in West Bengal. (AFP)

However, in a major respite to people in Kendrapara and Jajpur districts, water level in the Brahmani river receded at Jenapur.

The water level of Kharasrota river is showing a receding trend near Aul in Kendrapara district. The flood situation in Sundargarh district has also improved considerably with the waters of Brahmani, Ib and Koel rivers receding.

The flood-like situation in the southwestern districts of Rajasthan too has started to improve as the water showed receding trend, even as the death toll touched 17 since July 22.

A body was fished out from a swollen canal in Sumperpur and two children drowned in a pond in Marwar Junction of Pali district.

As many as 55 people were rescued from different villages in Barmer. Relief and rescue operations at all affected districts are being carried out by the Army, NDRF, SDRF and the respective district administrations, an official said.

Heavy rains lashed parts of Jodhpur division while light to moderate rainfall was witnessed in Jaipur, Udaipur, Ajmer divisions and at isolated places in Bharatpur, Kota and Bikaner divisions.

In the eastern part of the state, Mount Abu recorded 5 cm of rains followed by 4 cm each in Sirohi, Pindwara and Sheoganj of Sirohi district. In west Rajasthan, Sinderi in Barmer district recorded 11 cm of rains followed by 10 cm at Rohat, 9 cm in Marwar Junction and 8 cm each in Sedwa of Pali district.

The flood situation in West Bengal improved further as water has started to recede in majority of the rivers in the worst-hit Howrah, Hooghly and West Midnapore districts.

The toll, however, rose to 34 since July 21 following the death of three more persons in the state, officials said.

A senior official in the state’s Disaster Management Department said that nearly 25 lakh people were affected in about 170 villages in 11 flood-hit districts.

The flood was mainly caused by heavy rains earlier this week, triggered by a huge low pressure trough, and water released by the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) through its dams along the course of the Damodar river in Bihar and Bengal.

Maximum temperatures at most places in Haryana and Punjab hovered close to the normal limits with the joint capital Chandigarh receiving light showers and recording a maximum of 33.5 degrees Celsius.

Hisar in Haryana registered a high of 35.1 degrees Celsius, while Ambala recorded a maximum of 34.2 degrees Celsius.

In Punjab, Amritsar recorded a high of 34.8 degrees Celsius. Ludhiana and Patiala recorded 34.7 degrees Celsius each.

Four persons, including a father-son duo, have been killed in rain-related incidents in Himachal Pradesh where several roads are blocked due to landslides, an official said.

In Chamba district, a man and his five-year-old son were killed when a boulder fell on their motorcycle. In Kangra district, a 12-year-old boy was swept away in a flash flood while a tourist from Jalandhar drowned in the swollen Beas river near the Kaleshwar temple.

Landslides triggered by rains occurred at interior areas of Shimla, Mandi, Kullu, Chamba and Kangra districts.

Moderate rains occurred at several places in the low and mid hills and Dharampur received 54 mm rains followed by Dharamshala 52 mm, Kheri and Kandaghat 26 mm each, Sundernagar, Hamirpur and Sarahan 21 mm each, Tissa 19 mm, Bharari 15 mm, Manali 13 mm and Jogindernagar 11 mm.

Moderate to heavy rainfall occurred at many places in Bihar with Patna, Bhagalpur and Gaya registering 26.5 mm, 50.9 mm and 11.8 mm of rains respectively this morning since yesterday. Cheria Bariyarpur received 14 cm of rains while gauged 9 cm of precipitation.

Purnea recorded the highest maximum temperature at 34 degrees Celsius, followed by 32.8 degrees Celsius in Bhagalpur, 31 degrees Celsius in Patna and 29.1 degrees Celsius in Gaya.

Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, coastal Karnataka and eastern Uttar Pradesh also received rains.