MOSCOW (Sputnik) — At least seven people, including three children, were killed, and 21 injured on Saturday in India's northeastern Assam state after a lightning hit the boat they were travelling in across a river, Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) reported, citing local officials.
25 July 2015, 04:38 GMT
The injured and dead were villagers from Gogolmari and Santra villages of Barpeta district, one of the major in Western Assam, the local police was quoted as saying by the agency.
All of the injured, at least three of them in critical condition, were immediately delivered to a local hospital, mostly with burn injuries, according to the officials.
Lightning is responsible for at least 10 percent of the total deaths caused by nature calamities in most years in India, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. The situation is particularly severe in the eastern states of Assam, West Bengal and Odisha during the May-October rainy season.
