At least 47 people have been killed in storms and lightning across northern India, officials said Tuesday, the latest deaths from freak weather that has battered the country this month.
Disaster management officials in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand states said a combined total of 47 people had died in overnight storms across the region.
Bihar was the worst hit, pounded by strong winds and thunderbolts.
"At least 19 people have been confirmed dead. 11 of them due to lightning," Yoginder Singh, a state disaster management official, told AFP.
The wild weather stretched into neighboring Uttar Pradesh, where winds of up to 70 kilometers an hour buffeted India's most populous state.
"Fifteen people were killed by overnight lightning and high speed winds," said T.P. Gupta, an official from the Uttar Pradesh disaster management department.
Another 10 people were injured, some with burns after being struck by lightning, he added.
Nearly 200 people have died in Uttar Pradesh this month alone as strong winds and sandstorms brought down walls and electricity poles.
In Jharkhand, east of Bihar, 13 people died and six were injured in violent weather overnight, said Sushil Kumar, the head of the state's disaster management department.
The weather often turns extreme in north India at this time of year, as the blistering summer heat prepares to give way to annual monsoon rains.
