1.2220762-1866742845
An Indian man stands on the balcony of his apartment during a sudden dust storm in New Delhi, India. Image Credit: AP

New Delhi:  

At least 70 people have been killed and over 100 injured after a fresh wave of violent sandstorms and thunderstorms battered India, officials said Monday.

Winds of over 100 kilometres (62 miles) per hour struck parts of north, east and southern India late Sunday, uprooting trees, electricity pylons and damaging houses, officials from federal and state disaster management agencies said.

Forty people were killed by hail and thunderstorms that brought down walls, trees and power pylons in Uttar Pradesh state, T. P. Gupta of the state disaster management department told AFP.

Another 80 were injured by the winds that flattened nearly 40 houses across India's most populous state.

Another 14 people were killed Sunday by thunderstorms in West Bengal and 12 by lightning bolts in Andhra Pradesh.

The southern state had also been hit by more than 40,000 lightning bolts on May 1, killing 14 people in a matter of hours.

The latest storms also killed two people each in Bihar and the capital New Delhi where winds reached more than 100 kilometres an hour, national disaster management authorities said.

Indira Gandhi International Airport was closed for more than two hours because of the winds, with 70 flights diverted.

The deaths came just 10 days after a sandstorm left more than 84 dead, most of them in Agra - the city of the Taj Mahal.

India has been gripped by a freak weather system since the beginning of May, with many parts of the country experiencing extreme conditions.

Weather forecasters warned of fierce storms in parts of the north and east for the next two days.

Similar storms hit the region every year but this year has been the deadliest. On Thursday a thunderstorm left at least 22 people dead across India.

The May 2 dust storm killed at least 134 people and caused widespread destruction in the western state of Rajasthan and in northern Punjab and Uttarakhand states.

On May 3, more than 100 people were also killed in a violent dust storm that swept across India.

 

More thunderstorms

The weather office has said thunderstorms are expected across north-west India over the next 48 to 72 hours, as several weather phenomena, including western disturbances, converge.

 

The Met office has predicted thunderstorms accompanied by light rains for a huge swathe of northern India over the next two to three days. 

Meanwhile, an orange category warning —  which means the weather can significantly impact the lives of people —  has been issued for the hilly areas in the north, the northeast and Odisha.

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) had on Saturday predicted the northern states of Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh would witness thunderstorm accompanied by squall.

It had also forecast parts of the northern state of Rajasthan might see dust storm.

Thunderstorm over these hill-states states and its subsequent effect on plains in north Indian is due to a new western disturbance, the IMD had said.

 

"Thunderstorm accompanied with gusty winds are also very likely at isolated places over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, west Uttar Pradesh, Vidharbha, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Telangana, north coastal Andhra Pradesh, south interior Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Lakshadweep and Kerala," the IMD had said in an advisory said. 

1.2220762-3134437222
Village Itada is enveloped in thick blanket of dust during a dust storm in Noida near New Delhi, India. Image Credit: AFP
1.2220762-888684569
An Indian resident covers her face amid a dust storm in New Delhi. Image Credit: AFP
View gallery as list