Lightning kills 9 farmers in Bangladesh

Another 23 workers, who huddled into the same hut, were injured by the thunderbolt in Bholaganj village in Sylhet district.

Lightning struck a straw hut in northeastern Bangladesh on Thursday, killing at least nine farmers who took shelter there during a rainstorm, police said.

HT Image

Another 23 workers, who huddled into the same hut, were injured by the thunderbolt in Bholaganj village in Sylhet district, said a police official on condition of anonymity.

The nine died instantly, said the official after visiting the scene, 192 kilometers northeast of national capital, Dhaka.

He said the dead were between the ages of 25 and 35.

Abul Faisal, A photographer for Dhaka's daily Ittefaq newspaper, said he saw nine bodies laid out in a rice field.

The injured were being treated in a local hospital, the police official said. He did not provide details on their conditions.

Mayor of Sylhet city, Badruddin Kamran Chowdhury, visited those who were hospitalised.

The rainstorms also damaged rice crops in the field and knocked over dozens of trees in the area.

Driving rainstorms are common in Bangladesh, a tropical delta nation of 140 million people.