UP heat wave toll rises to 27: 8 killed in North-West squall

New Delhi, May 9 (UNI) The heat wave toll in Uttar Pradesh today rose to 27 while eight persons were killed and ten others injured, besides several houses and hundreds of wheat straw collections were reduced to ashes due to a duststorm that hit the North-West region of the country yesterday night.

In Uttar Pradesh, three more heatwave deaths were reported in the last 24 hrs from Ferozabad, Siddharthnagar and Sant Kabirnagar districts, taking the toll to 27.

Jhansi recorded the maximum temperature of 46 degrees Celsius, three degrees above normal, while the UP capital recorded a maximum of 37 degrees C.

In the thunderstorm that hit the North-West region of the country, six people were killed in Punjab and two in Himachal Pradesh. The squall, with wind speed exceeding 102 km per hour in Chandigarh, damaged houses, uprooted trees, disrupted power and water supplies, blew off hoardings, signboards and roofs of thatched houses, snapped telecommunication wires, triggerred fire incidents and perished animals in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

In Punjab, a couple was killed in a house collapse at Sindwa Jamita village in Gurdaspur district. In a similar incident in the district, a labourer was killed at Phara village. A person, while driving a tractor, came under it when he lost its control during the storm near Deepawal village. Another person, riding a bi-cycle, was killed when a tree fell on him at Allowal village.

The duststorm, accompanied by lightning, played havoc in more than two dozen villages in Kapurthala district. One person died due to sudden shock on seeing the fire that engulfed the entire Randhirpurthe village. More than three dozen animals perished and fifty houses gutted in fire incidents, in which agricultural implements, tractors, two combines and one car were damaged, a report from Kapurthala said.

More UNI Team PK DB2031