Gujarat's Dwarkadhish Temple in Devbhumi-Dwarka district was struck by lightning on Tuesday afternoon. It damaged the flag atop the shrine, though no harm was caused to the famous Lord Krishna's temple or the people near or inside the temple, videos that recorded the incident showed. The lightning struck the temple amid heavy rains.
Union home minister Amit Shah held a telephonic conversation with the Devbhumi-Dwarka district administration after the lightning strike, news agency PTI reported.
According to a statement issued by Shah's office, the lightning has not damaged the temple structure and no one was injured in the incident.
The statement added that Shah held a telephonic conversation with the temple management and with the district collector on learning about the lightning strike.
{{/usCountry}}The statement added that Shah held a telephonic conversation with the temple management and with the district collector on learning about the lightning strike.
{{/usCountry}}Two videos of the incident have surfaced on social media. Though the lightning did not damage the structure, one of the videos showed that the flag atop the temple was torn.
Around 80 people have been killed in lightning strikes in the past 24 hours in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Of these, 11 are visitors who were killed on Sunday when lightning struck them at Amer Fort near Jaipur.
According to National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), thunderstorms accompanied by lightning strikes (usually in the pre-monsoon and monsoon months) are the single-largest killers among natural disasters (extreme weather events) in India.