Heavy rain lashes Gulbarga

Gulbarga, Mar 11 (UNI) Unexpected thunder showers, accompanied by hailstorms, lashed the district late last night, causing extensive damage to life and property.

Sources said five shepherds, taking shelter under a tree at Batagera village in Sedam taluk, and nine goats were charred to death on the spot when lightning struck them. Eight people, injured when tin sheets fell on them, were being treated at the Government General Hospital here.

Initial reports said farmers suffered heavy losses in Sedam, Ehitapur, Jewargi and Gulbarga taluks with the destruction of standing crops. Paddy crop in hundreds of hectares in Surpur taluk in the command areas of the upper Krishna project had been destroyed.

The rehabilitation centre at Ankalaga village, which housed those displaced by the breaching of Bennethora dam in September 2005, was destroyed in the rain. District-in-charge Deputy Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey visited the rehabilitation centre with an ambulance and medical staff, but the authorities were yet to open a relief centre for the affected.

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