As many as nine people have died in Uttar Pradesh after torrential rainfall wreaked havoc in several parts of the state and brought normal life to a standstill on Sunday.
District Magistrates of at least a dozen districts, including Ghaziabad, Meerut, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Lucknow, Aligarh, and Kanpur ordered all schools to close on Monday because of incessant rainfall in these areas.
Two deaths were reported in the Gorakhpur district when a boat capsized in the Rapti river. And in Hardoi, two farmers lost their life after being struck by lightning. In a similar incident, an 11-year-old girl was killed by lightning in the district of Sitapur.
Two teenagers were washed away in flood waters of the swollen Rapti river in the Balrampur district, and each of the districts of Ghaziabad, Etawah, and Bulandshahr suffered one fatality in rain-related incidents.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Uttar Pradesh registered 22.5mm of rainfall on Sunday, a jump of 2,396 percent for a single day average in the state. Since the start of this month, the state has witnessed a 500 percent rise in rainfall - rather than the average of 14.4mm, Uttar Pradesh has recorded 92.3 mm of showers this month so far.
The weather agency has forecast more rain across the state on Monday.