Bhubaneswar: At least 30 people were on Saturday killed and over 40 others injured in separate lightning incidents in various parts of Odisha.
Eight people were killed in Bhadrak district while seven perished in the natural disaster in the neighbouring Balasore district. In Khurda district, six persons were killed while two each died in Kendrapara, Nayagarh and Mayur-bhanj. One each died in Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack and Puri districts. Most of the deceased were killed while working in the paddy field.
In Bhadrak, two persons of Bisalapatta village in Banta block lost their lives in lightning strike. The incident took place while they were working in the fields.
Expressing profound grief over the death of such a large number of people in lightning, Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik asked the officials of revenue and disaster management to immediately provide ex-gratia amount to the next of the kin of the deceased.
