Storm, lightning strike UP, kill 26, injure over 50

AGRA: At least 26 people were killed and over 50 others injured as dust storm accompanied by lightning battered western Uttar Pradesh, damaging homes and uprooting hundreds of trees. The storm started Thursday evening and continued to tear through the region till late night.
“Most of the people died in wall and roof collapse,” a senior government official told TOI as the dust settled down on Friday morning. “Two of them died in lightning strike—one each in Badaun and Pilibhit districts,” he said.
“While maximum six persons died in Mainpuri, three each died in Etah and Kasganj, two each in Farrukhabad and Barabanki, and one each in Moradabad, Badaun, Pilibhit, Mathura, Kannauj, Sambhal, Ghaziabad, Amroha, Badaun and Mahoba,” according to data released by the state relief commissioner GS Priyadarshi.
The dust storm wreaked havoc on basic amenities also. It snapped electric and telephone lines, and uprooted hundreds of poles and trees which led to chaos on roads on Friday morning.
According to sources, there was no electricity in nearly 1,500 villages of Etah district where over 300 poles were either uprooted or damaged. Same is the condition of 500 villages of Kasganj district.