Lightning strike kills three people and injures many more in Vadodara, Dahod

Three people were killed in separate lightning strikes on Friday, two in Dahod and one in Vadodara. While one person was injured in a lightning strike in Latipura village in Vadodara’s Padra taluka Friday afternoon as a result of the sudden onset of heavy unseasonal rain, two people were injured in Dahod.

According to officials, Prabhat Padhiyar, a farmer from Latipura, was harvesting chillies in his field to protect them from rain damage when lightning struck. Padhiyar died instantly, while another woman, Sita Mali, who was working nearby, was injured.

In Borkheda village of Dahod taluka, a 57-year-old woman named Gedi Taju Mavi was killed in the lightning strike when she was working in the courtyard of her house. Similarly, in Tunkivaju village of Garbada taluka, lightning struck a house in which 70-year-old Manu Kharad was instantly killed and two persons—Surekha and Kamlesh Kharad—were injured. The injured were rushed to Zydus Hospital in Dahod, while the police also sent the bodies of both the deceased for autopsy to the same hospital.

The Vadodara city and district received nearly 12.7 mm rain in close to an hour of heavy downpour Friday. Several trees fell in the strong winds accompanying the rain with the Vadodara Fire and Emergency Department rushing to answer calls from the public.

Additionally, four buffaloes and two cows were killed in the Galaliyawada village and the Kali Talai area of Dahod respectively due to lightning.