Two farmers dead, four others injured in Jhenaidah thunderbolts

Two farmers have died and four others injured in separate lightning strikes in Shailkupa Upazila of Jhenaidah.

The thunderbolts were reported in the neighbouring villages of Kharibaria and Lakshmipur of Umedpur Union on Saturday afternoon, said Shailkupa Police Station chief Md Humayun Kabir.

The dead were identified as Apu Biswas, 22, of Lakshmipur village and 40-year-old Samir Biswas of the other village.

Witnesses Bijoy Biswas and Ripon Biswas said that Samir and his father were harvesting onions from a field while Apu was working along with others in a nearby field.

All of them were critically injured as separate thunderbolts struck them almost simultaneously, the witnesses said.

They were immediately rushed to the Shailkupa Upazila Health Complex, where Apu and Samir were pronounced dead.

An on-duty doctor at the healthcare facility, preferring anonymity, said Apu and Samir were confirmed dead after medical tests upon their arrival in critical condition around 12:15pm.

The survivors are being treated there. Police filed separate unnatural death cases over the fatalities.

Lightning strikes kill nearly 300 people in Bangladesh annually, with the highest number of fatalities reported in the northeastern districts of Sunamganj, Netrokona and Sylhet, where farmers are the worst affected.