One devotee was killed and 24 people were injured, four of them critically, after lightning struck two locations on the historic Gurupadgiri Hill, a famous Buddhist and Hindu site, in Bihar’s Gaya district on Saturday evening, police said.
Policemen and locals formed a human chain from the top to the bottom of the hill and brought the injured down after they sustained burn injuries to their limbs and other parts of the body. Rain and the mountain’s rugged, steep terrain caused significant difficulties for the rescue efforts. More than 3,000 devotees had gathered on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan when the weather changed and it started to rain amid loud thunder and lightning. The injured ranged in age from 10-year-old children to 55-year-old adults, officers said.
Lightning struck the temple complex at the summit and an area near the narrow Andheria-Dhandheria cave, where people had taken shelter under trees, police officers said.
