Lightning Strike Kills Three in Chhattisgarh, Including Youth from UP; Mobile Phone Blast Blamed in One Case
Raipur
Three people were killed and eight others injured in lightning strikes across Raipur and Balrampur districts of Chhattisgarh on Saturday evening. One of the victims died due to a mobile phone explosion triggered by a lightning strike.
In Raipur’s Bhavna Nagar locality under Khamhardih police station, three youths were playing games on a mobile phone on the rooftop of a house around 1 PM when lightning struck the device. The mobile phone exploded on impact, killing Sunny, a youth from Uttar Pradesh, on the spot and leaving two others severely injured. The injured were rushed to a hospital in critical condition.
Sunny, who hailed from Hemdhapur village in Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh, had come to Chhattisgarh for daily wage work. Police arrived at the scene following the incident and sent the body for post-mortem.
In a separate incident in Balrampur district, lightning struck a group of people working in a field in Belsar village under Shankargarh police station. Eighteen-year-old Maneshwar Agariya and 37-year-old Suveshwar Nageshiya were killed in the strike. Six others sustained injuries and were admitted to the Shankargarh Community Health Centre for treatment.
Shankargarh SHO Jitendra Jaiswal said that post-mortem examinations were conducted on Sunday, and the bodies were handed over to the families. The injured have been identified as Santosh Tigga (40), Sushila Tigga (35), Santosh Agariya (24), Dhaneshwar Agariya (19), Lokhnath (55), and Manrakhan (25) — all residents of Belsar village.
The twin incidents highlight the dangers of lightning during monsoon months. According to experts, lightning is caused by the collision of clouds with opposite electrical charges. The friction between these clouds generates an electrical discharge that seeks the shortest path to the ground. If a human is in proximity and becomes part of the current’s path, the results can be fatal, as the human body serves as a better conductor than surrounding objects. A similar tragedy occurred in the past at the Amer Fort watchtower in Jaipur.
