5 dead, 10 injured in Barabanki thunderstorm

Lucknow: A powerful thunderstorm accompanied by heavy rain caused widespread devastation across Barabanki district on Thursday evening, claiming five lives and injuring at least 10 others. The storm uprooted trees, damaged infrastructure, and led to long traffic snarls and power outages on Ayodhya-Lucknow national highway.
The first incident occurred in Kachar Mazra Hakami, under the jurisdiction of Asandra police station, where schoolchildren returning from the fields took shelter in a nearby farmhouse when a in shed collapsed, crushing 12-year-old Jyoti, daughter of Munnalal, and 13-year-old Shivam, son of Raju, to death, police said. Four others — Jyoti's brother Saurabh, along with Sumit, Radha, and Hariom — sustained injuries.
The second tragedy unfolded in Kodari Mazra Nawabpur, under Zaidpur police station, where six-year-old Dhruv Kumar and his 35-year-old aunt, Phoolmati, were taking shelter with another family member under the tin shed of a private school when a tree crashed onto the structure. Both Dhruv and Phoolmati died on the spot, police said.
Another fatality was reported in Teri Maulabad, under Safdarganj police station, where 55-year-old Sitaba, a visitor from Fatehullapur in the Ramnagar area, was killed when a wall collapsed on her during the storm. In the same village, a tree fell on Ram Lakhan and his wife, Rama Devi, while they were working in the fields. Both were seriously injured.
The storm uprooted a massive eucalyptus tree on the Ayodhya–Lucknow national highway near Laxbar Bajha, causing a three-kilometre-long traffic jam. Two ambulances were also stranded in the jam. Forest department teams and police reached the spot and worked for nearly two hours to clear the obstruction.
Additional SP of Barabanki, Vikas Chandra Tripathi, said the bodies would be handed over to the families following the post-mortems.