New Delhi: Seven people were killed in a storm that raged across the central Indian state of Jharkhand on Saturday, uprooting electricity poles and hundreds of trees.

Police said a man, his two daughters and a son were crushed to death by a fallen tree at Kona village in Chatra district. In the second incident, three members of a family were killed in Dhanbad district because of lightning.

On Friday, a massive thunder storm coupled with dusty winds hit the Indian national capital, severely affecting road traffic, metro services, flight operations and power supply in the city.

Met department termed the storm as “cumulonimbus” and attributed it to western weather disturbance over Pakistan.

NCR areas of east Delhi, Noida and Ghaziabad were most affected by the storm.

Thousands of people were stranded outside Metro stations and on roads as traffic almost came to a halt due to the storm and high-speed dusty winds blowing at a speed of over 90 kmph.

The dust storm which struck at 4.58pm caused problems in the over-head power network of the Noida City Centre- Dwarka metro line and affected metro services in other lines too.

Met office said similar weather conditions are likely to persist for over the next two days.

At least 12 flights were diverted due to the storm, an IGI official said. The city saw massive traffic jams as the storm uprooted trees snapping power lines in many areas and affecting traffic lights leading to chaos on the streets.

“The cumulonimbus brings tall thunderstorms and dusty winds with a speed of over 92 kmph and are caused because of western disturbance, which is currently over Pakistan.

“The meeting of cold air and hot air on the Indo-Gangetic plains causes low pressure area and also lot of instability. This results in severe thunderstorm,” IMD Director General L.S. Rathore said.

The storm affected northeast Haryana and the NCR. But parts of east Delhi, Noida and Ghaziabad were affected the most, he said.

“This phenomena is likely to continue for the next two days,” Rathore said.

The maximum temperature recorded on Friday was 42.8 degrees Celcius while the minimum was 29.1 degrees Celcius