At least 18 people were killed and 28 injured in hail and thunderstorm that hit different parts of Uttar Pradesh today, officials said.
Five deaths have been reported from Kasganj, three from Bulandshahr and two each from Ghaziabad and Saharanpur. Apart from this, one death each has been reported from Etawah, Aligarh, Kannauj, Hapur, Noida and Sambhal, Principal Secretary (Information) Awanish Awasthi said.
At least 28 people were injured and around 37 houses were damaged in the hail and thunderstorm, he said.
"Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed all district magistrates and commissioners to provide immediate relief (to the affected people) and ensure that the injured are provided medical care immediately," Awasthi said.
In the evening, the state government had warned that hail thunderstorm, with winds speed of up to 70 km per hour, accompanied with squall and rain are very likely in parts of Badaun, Bareilly, Pilibhit, Lakhimpur, Shajhanpur, Sitpur, Hardoi, Lucknow, Barabanki, Raebareli, Sultanpur, Faizabad, Jaunpur, Azamgarh, Allahabad, Mirzapur, Sant Ravidas Nagar districts.
On May 9, several parts of the state were hit by a severe storm that left 18 dead and 27 others injured. Five people died in Etawah district, three each in Mathura, Aligarh and Agra, two in Firozabad and one each in Hathras and Kanpur Dehat.
Thunderstorms and lightning on May 2-3 killed 134 people and injured over 400 in UP, Rajasthan, Telangana, Utttarakhand and Punjab. UP was the worst affected, accounting for 80 deaths, most of them in Agra district in the western part of the state.