16 dead in lightning strikes, house collapses as heavy rains lash Uttar Pradesh

Lucknow: Sixteen people were killed in incidents of lightning and house collapse as heavy rains continued to pound parts of Uttar Pradesh throwing normal life out of gear at many places.

According to the reports, six people lost their lives in incidents of house collapse amid heavy rains in Meerut and Moradabad districts in the past 24-hours.

Lightning strikes claimed ten lives in Mirzapur, Prayagraj, Pratapgarh, Bahraich and Gonda districts, reports said.

Power supply was disrupted in some places after electricity poles were uprooted while movement of vehicular traffic was affected at some other places after trees fell on the roads amid rains.

Officials here said that relief and rescue operations were underway in the affected areas. Teams of NDRF and SDRF were engaged in carrying out relief and rescue operations, they said.

UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed the officials to provide ex-gratia relief to the affected people.

Schools were closed in the affected districts in view of the heavy rains, reports said.

The Met office has predicted heavy rains in many regions, especially the eastern region, in the state in the next few days.

An orange alert was sounded in the western UP districts of Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur. A yellow alert was sounded in 22 other districts in the eastern and Avadh region.