Lightning strikes kill 27 in West Bengal

Lightning strikes killed 27 people and four passengers on a flight were hospitalised after severe turbulence during monsoon storms in West Bengal, officials said yesterday. "Many of the 27 killed on Monday evening... in the state were farmers and working in the fields," West Bengal disaster management minister Javed Ahmed Khan told AFP. A flight from the western city of Mumbai to Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, was caught in the storm as it was about to land, officials added. Eight passengers were injured with four taken to hospital. Nearly 2,900 people were killed by lightning in India in 2019 according to the National Crime Records Bureau.