UP: Elderly couple killed in thunderstorm in Kheri

Kanwardeep Singh | TNN | Updated: May 2, 2020, 08:00 IST

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BAREILLY: A late night thunderstorm claimed the lives of an elderly couple and several domestic animals across Lakhimpur Kheri district.
According to sources, the elderly couple was sleeping in their house when the wall of their room collapsed on them in Behdalal village in Maighalganj area. The other members of the family didn’t come to know about the incident at midnight and no one came to their rescue until morning. The couple were found when the wall's debris was removed. The incident also led to the death of three domestic cattle and a pet dog.
It all happened when on Friday morning, Abrar woke up to a surprise at 5 am when he found that the room in which his parents were sleeping had collapsed and his parents were buried inside. He immediately removed the debris of the wall with the support of neighbours but his parents had died. Later the bodies were taken by Maigalganj SHO Chandrakant Singh and sent for autopsy.
Mitauli SDM Digvijay Singh told TOI, “Mohammed Munshin, 75, and his wife Akhtari Begum died after the wall of their house collapsed due to thunderstorm and heavy rain on Thursday night. Our team had conducted a survey and found that three goats, a buffalo calf also died in the incident. It was really an unfortunate moment for the family and we couldn’t do much for them except sanctioning the compensation. In such cases there is a provision of Rs 4 lakh for each human death, Rs 16,000 for buffalo calf and Rs 3,000 for the death of each goat.”
“Rain and thunderstorm has caused damaged in nearby areas as well where few cattle have died. We will be sanctioning compensation in those cases, too. The harvest of wheat crop is almost complete and no damage to any crops has been reported so far.”