Killer Lightning

A story in today’s Telegraph informs that a single bolt of lightning killed 9 people in a village in Burdwan, 135km from Kolkata. They were part of a gathering that in fact assembled to mourn the death of a person.

As a cruel twist of fate, the son and daughter-in-law of the man in whose memory they had gathered were among the dead.

According to The Telegraph, this casualty is possibly the highest ever to have occurred in a single stroke in Bengal.

Violent storms accompanied by lightning are common in Bengal during the Norwester season and monsoon.

Experts say lightning can have as high temperature as 10000 degrees Celsius when touching ground.

No wonder then that the bodies of the people who died were completely charred in the above incident.

This post is rather prompted to keep readers aware of the dangers of lightning. On the left are some cautionary Dos’ and Don’ts when lightning happens (taken from the news article).

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