4 killed, 17 injured as lightning strikes crematorium

Four persons were killed and 17 others injured as lightning struck a crematorium site in a village of Aurangabad district today, police said.

All the victims had come to the crematorium site at Dumuhan village accompanying the body of the chairman of an agriculture cooperative association.

"Four persons were killed and 17 others injured when lightning struck the Dumhuhan crematorium under Obra police station area. The condition of two of the injured was stated to be serious," Daudnagar Sub-Divisional Police Officer Raj Kumar Tiwary said.

It started raining heavily and lightning struck the site when a group of people gathered at Dumuhan crematorium where the body of Ramesh Dubey, chariman of the Primary Agriculture Cooperative Society of Kara Panchayat, had been consigned to flames, Tiwary said.

Altogether 21 injured persons were taken to Aurangabad Sadar Hospital where four persons died, he said.

The rain, however, could not douse the pyre, an eye witness said.