UP dust storm toll mounts to 39; 50 injured

The toll in a dust storm that hit parts of Uttar Pradesh has risen to 39, officials said today.

Six people were killed in Kasganj, the worst affected district in the state, an Uttar Pradesh government official said.

"Thirty-nine people were killed and 50 others were injured in the dust storm that hit various parts of Uttar Pradesh on May 13-14," the official said.

Five people each were killed in Bareilly and Barabanki districts and three deaths each were reported from Bulandshahr and Lakhimpur Khiri districts.

Besides, two deaths each were reported from Ghaziabad, Saharanpur and Pratapgarh districts, and one each from Muzaffarnagar, Etawah, Kannauj, Sambhal, Aligarh, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Badaun, Mirzapur, Jaunpur, Mathura and Shamli districts.

Of the 50 injured people, 13 are from Sambhal. Five people were injured in Auraiya and as many as seven people in Rampur.

Officials said 117 houses were damaged and 13 animals died in the storm.

Nearly 80 houses were damaged in Lakhimpur Khiri, while 31 houses were damaged in Sambhal district.

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 had killed 134 people and injured over 400 in Uttar Pradesh (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.