At least five people were killed as lightning hit lush rice terraces in northern Bangladesh with heavy showers, pounding isolated villages across the country, media reports said Monday, according to DPA. Three rice farmers were killed while they were working in soggy fields during thunderstorms in the worst-hit Kurigram district near the India-Bangladesh border on Sunday, the daily Bangladesh Observer said. Further up north in Thakurgaon district another farmer was struck down by lightning during an overnight electric storm. A 12-year old girl was also fatally hit by lightning when she was returning home from school in Sherpur district, the newspaper reported quoting local police. Thunderstorms are common in the area at this time of the year ahead of the advent of the monsoon rains, a weather official said. About 50 people were killed in Bangladesh by lightning last year, a report on disaster management said.
