9 hurt, several rendered homeless as storm hits West Bengal

Kolkata, July 29: Over 200 houses were damaged, scores of people were rendered homeless and nine persons were injured as storms lashed pockets of three districts of West Bengal since last night, reports from the districts said on Wednesday.

While around hundred houses were damaged in Howrah district, as many huts were affected in North 24 Parganas district last night while an unspecified number of kuchcha houses were damaged in Nadia district in storm this morning.

The storm in Howrah district caused havoc in Chara Panchla Badamtala village under Panchla police station limits in Howrah district, destroying houses rendering around 200 people homeless, uprooting trees and electricity poles, district officials said.

The cyclone, accompanied by heavy rains, damaged around 80 houses, destroyed 20 others and injured nine persons of whom the condition of two was stated to be serious. The two were admitted to hospital.

Tin roofs of some houses were flown almost 1 km away, an official of the local panchayat said, adding, tarpaulin sheets and dry foods had been sent to the village last night while cooked food is being arranged for today.

The homeless people have taken shelter in an under-construction hostel and local factories, the panchayat official said.

In North 24 Parganas district, over 100 huts were damaged in four wards of Habra Municipality, Food Minister and local MLA Jyotipriya Mullick said. The affected people, the number of whom was not specified, were sent to relief camps.

Mullick said train services in Sealdah-Bangaon section was also affected as uprooted trees fell on tracks during the storm.

Meanwhile, an unspecified number of houses were damaged at Nagar Ukhra under Haringhata police station in Nadia district in a storm this morning, SDO (Kalyani) Swapan Kumar Kundu said.

The number of people affected was also not immediately known, Kundu said.

PTI