Bolt from the blue kills 18-year-old

Mahesh was working in his vegetable farm at Kalyan when the lightning struck

An 18-year-old youth, Mahesh Yadav was killed when a lightning struck him on Thursday night at Kalyan. Yadav was working in his vegetable farm when the incident occurred.

“We were seven of us who were working on the farm when the incident took place. It was raining very heavily and we were tying the vegetables to keep it away from being washed away in the rain. It was then that suddenly a bolt of lightning hit Mahesh,” said Mahesh’s father Shyamlal.

“I turned to Mahesh and asked him whether he was ok, to which he said yes, but then collapsed and fell to the ground,” added Shyamlal. Mahesh was taken to Rukminibai Hospital where the doctors pronounced him dead.

The farm, where the incident took place, is located near the railway tracks and is just one-and-a-half-kilometer from the Kalyan railway station. Cases of lightning damaging overhead wires of the railways have earlier been reported at this place.

“Such incidents occur here every two or three years during rains,” said Surendra Chikle a farmer. Tata Telecom had earlier laid cables at this place but was removed as they were damaged in a lightning strike two years back.”