9 killed as rain wreaks havoc in Kolkata, neighbourhoods

Kolkata, June 13 (UNI) At least nine people were killed in lightning and electrocution as heavy rains pounded Kolkata and adjoining districts this morning flooding vast areas and throwing life out of gear.

Heralding the onset of monsoon in South Bengal, the blinding rain, accompanied by strong winds, continued for hours disrupting railway services and vehicular movement and also affecting air services.

Trees were uprooted and electric wires snapped while markets, shops and schools remained closed in many areas because of water-logging.

Police said five people were killed and four others injured in North 24 Parganas when they were struck by lightning in separate incidents during heavy thundershower.

While two persons died in a wholesale fish market at Keshtopur on the city's northern fringe, one each was killed at Rajarhat and Kulgachhi area.

A cultivator was also killed in Bagdah police station area of the district when he was going to his farmland, police said.

According to official reports, three persons, including an infant and a girl were killed by lightning at Haringhata and Kalyani in Nadia district.

A 16-year-old girl was electrocuted when an overhead wire, snapped by a tree branch, fell on her in the city's Park Circus area.

Met office said the rain was caused by the Southeast monsoon here that finally reached South Bengal about a week later than the expected arrival.

Monsoon was expected to extend to the northern parts of the state in the next 48 hours, the weather office added.

Though it was a welcome rain for the people afflicted by the scorching heat of a prolonged summer, large areas, including the posh Park Street and Theatre Road in Central Kolkata, Tollygunge and Ballygunge in the South and Phoolbagan and Kankurgachi in the North were submerged in knee-deep water.

Rainwater entered the ground floor of a number of houses and slums in the low-lying areas. Water also engulfed a large part of sector-V, the city's IT hub in the Salt Lake area.

The water-logging seriously affected bus and tram services while private cars remained stranded in several areas in breakdown condition.

Railway sources said train services in different sections of Howrah and Sealdah were severely disrupted as rainwater overtopped tracks at several places. While suburban train services remained suspended for sometime, trains in all the sections of Sealdah were moving late in the Howrah division.

According to the NSCBI airport authorities, departure and arrival of flights were getting delayed because of inclement weather.

City mayor Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharjee said efforts were being made to flush out the accumulated water by activating all the five pumping stations of Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

UNI