Fierce thunderstorms with heavy rains uprooted trees and destroyed hundreds of homes, crushing dozens of people to death and injuring scores of others in northern India, police said Saturday. At least 43 people were killed and 70 hurt in the deluge and squalls that erupted late Friday. The powerful storms slashed a wide swath across Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states, uprooting trees and power pylons and damaging homes and crops. In eastern Uttar Pradesh, 21 people were killed and about 50 others injured when heavy rains lashed the region, police spokesman Surendra Srivastava said Saturday. «A majority of the victims were crushed under uprooted trees or when houses collapsed due to the squall,» he said. In neighboring Bihar, 22 people died after strong winds blew off the roofs of houses and toppled trees and electricity poles, said Devesh Chandra Thakur, the state's disaster management minister. Large parts of the state, including the capital Patna, were hit by power outages that lasted more than 10 hours, according to a report of the Associated Press.
