Lightning Kills 13 Farmers in Eastern India

Lightning has struck farmers working in fields in eastern India, killing at least 13 people.

A police officer says the fatalities occurred Saturday in the West Bengal state districts of Murshidabad, Burdwan and North Parganas. Twenty people were injured by the lightning.

The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters, also said Sunday that a 65-year-old woman was killed when pre-monsoon rains caused a house to collapse in Murshidabad district.

He said a 31-year-old woman was killed in West Bengal’s Nadia district when a tree uprooted by a thunderstorm fell on an auto-rickshaw she was in.

Thunderstorms have hit across northern and eastern India this weekend, with monsoon rains likely to hit the southern coast this week.