Eight persons were killed and 28 others injured when lightning struck West Bengal, parts of which were lashed by heavy rains this morning, police said.
Five persons were killed in lightning in Hariharpur and Raghunathganj areas of Murshidabad district.
Two persons were killed in Maheshpur village, one in nearby Daltonpur village in Hariharpur area, while two others were killed in Rajanagar village in Raghunathganj. Three others were injured in lightning in Raghunathganj.
In Burdwan two persons, including a woman was killed and another woman injured in yet another lightning incident.
The two deaths occurred at Khandaghosh and Kumarpur in Raniganj, police said.
In Khandaghosh a 48-year-old man was killed when he was working in his field this morning, while a 23-year-old woman was killed when lightning struck the shed under which she had taken shelter to save herself from the rains in Kumarpur.
Another woman who was accompanying her in collecting firewood was seriously injured and later admitted to hospital.
In Purulia a man who went out to plough his field in the rains was killed in Baghmundi, police said.
Another 24 people were injured, two of them critically, in another incidence of lightning at Chandrakona area of West Midnapore district.
The injured were waiting to join work allotted to them under MNREGA at Tolbostihala village, the police said adding they were rushed to hospital.
The weatherman said in Kolkata that the state experienced widespread rains ranging from 30 mm to 50 mm this morning.
The pre-monsoon showers were due to fast cloud formation, the MeT office said adding there will be spells of thundershowers both in south and north Bengal for the next two to three days. The showers would be mainly in south Bengal.
