Dust storm kills 15, many injured

LUCKNOW: CHANDIGARH/BHOPAL/NEW DELHI: MORADABAD BORE THE MAXIMUM BRUNT OF THE STORM, WITH SEVEN OF THE CASUALTIES REPORTED FROM THE DISTRICT FOLLOWED BY THREE DEATHS FROM SAMBHAL

At least 15 people were killed and several injured, and property worth lakhs of rupees damaged after a dust storm hit several districts of western Uttar Pradesh on Friday.

The Met department had already issued a storm warning for Friday and sent out another alert on Saturday of similar disturbances in the next 24 hours.

Police said seven people were killed and three others severely injured when a building collapsed in Moradabad. Three others were killed in adjacent Sambhal district. Two deaths each were reported from Muzaffarnagar and Meerut while a person was killed in Amroha.

Director of UP meteorological department JP Gupta said, “The adverse climate activity was caused due to local changes in climatic condition.”

Administration of the respective districts have started relief exercise to help those affected.

UP has witnessed hostile climatic conditions on several occasions since last month. More than 70 people have lost their lives due to dust storms/thunder storms in the last one month, officials said.

LOCAL DISTURBANCES, HARD TO PREDICT: MET

The turbulence in weather, according to Met officials, is caused by change in local wind activity. “These changes are local phenomena. This makes it very difficult to predict them much in advance,” Gupta said, adding the recent thunder storms were caused by influx of cold monsoon winds from east and south and hot arid winds from the west.