Another dies due to sound of thunder

Maddur: Heavy rains accompanied by thunder and lightning has claimed the lives of two people in separate incidents. While one person was killed when lightning struck him while he was speaking on mobile phone, another died of heart attack due to loud sound of thunder.

In the first incident, a 35-year-old man, who was standing under a tree due to heavy rain and speaking on his mobile, was killed on the spot when lightning struck him. The incident took place near Haralahalli Circle in the taluk yesterday evening.

The deceased has been identified as Madhu, Secretary of Vaidyanathapura Village Milk Producers Co-operative Society.

Madhu, who dropped his wife at Kadukothanahalli village in the taluk, was on his way back to his village when heavy rains began to lash. With no place to take shelter, Madhu stood under a tree wearing a helmet and was speaking on his mobile phone when lightning struck him killing him on the spot besides destroying his mobile phone.

Madhu was married two years ago and has a nine-month-old baby. K.M. Doddi Inspector Anand visited the spot.

In the second incident, a 60-year-old woman suffered a heart attack and died due to loud sound of thunder.

The deceased has been identified as Gowramma, a resident of Shivapura in Maddur town. She collapsed in her house due to the loud sound of thunder and was being shifted to a hospital but she breathed her last midway.

Incidents of electric poles crashing down, damage to roofs have also occurred at Maalagaranahalli and Kodihalli in the taluk besides power outage.

Traffic disrupted

Traffic was disrupted on the Service Road of Bengaluru-Mysuru Highway, as a huge tree got uprooted near Dr. Ambedkar Bhavan in Maddur town.

Also, rain water from the Expressway flooded the Service Road causing disruption in vehicular movement.

Traffic on the Expressway was also disrupted due to flooding of the Expressway following heavy rains in Channapatna, and Ramanagar.