Storm: Death toll goes up to 14

The death toll in the powerful dust storm has increased to 14 today even as many areas in the city remained without electricity for over 24 hours due to delay in restoration of damaged power transmission lines.
Some areas in the city faced severe water shortage as a number of water treatment plants could not function at optimum level due to long outages.
Power supply could not be restored in various areas of West Delhi till evening.
A senior power department official said a total ten transmission towers of three major lines -- Mandola-Gopalpur, Bawana -Rohini Line and Bamnauli- Pappankalan-I -- have been damaged in the storm that had struck at around 4:58 PM yesterday.

"Since it will take time to fully restore these lines, efforts are being made to supply power through other alternate routes. Discoms have been advised to judiciously rotate load shedding," the official said.
Police said a total of 14 people died and over two dozen were injured in various areas of the city in accidents like felling of trees, collapse of walls and electrocution.

Most casualties were reported from West Delhi where three people lost their lives. This was followed by South West Delhi, Central Delhi, North Delhi and North West Delhi where two people each were killed in different accidents, according to police.

A 10-year-old girl died in West Delhi's Mayapuri area while returning from tuition. In Uttam Nagar of west Delhi, a labourer was killed when a tree fell on him while a 48-year-old man died of severe head injuries when a hoarding fell on him.
A 35-year-old tempo driver was killed in Naraina area in South West Delhi when a wall collapsed on him. An 18-year-old girl, identified as Aasha Malik, was also killed in the area, police said.
Malik died when a boundary wall collapsed on her around 5.15 PM. She was rushed to Rao Tula Ram Hospital where doctors declared her dead on arrival.

In Central Delhi, a 24-year-old cab driver died after a tree fell on his car in ITO area while another man died in similar fashion in Chandni Chowk.
In North Delhi, a man identified as Younis was killed after a tree fell on him Kotwali area while another man was killed in Civil Lines area after some portion of a building fell on him.