New Delhi-SANA
More than 50 people were killed in lightning strikes that struck many states in India, the authorities announced today, including 11 people in a historic fort.
Media said that about 10 people died yesterday in the desert state of Rajasthan, while the authorities confirmed that at least 42 people had died in various parts of Uttar Pradesh, the country's most populous state.
In Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, lightning struck two watchtowers in the 12th-century Amer Fort, which was crowded with visitors who were following a rainstorm as it crossed the city, killing 11 people and wounding 71 others, three of whom are in critical condition.
"It was raining when people were here and they took shelter in towers when the rain got hard," a senior Jaipur police official told AFP.
Every year hundreds of people die in powerful storms that accompany the onset of the rainy season, which eases the summer heat in the plains of northern India.