The thunderstorm and lightning which struck the state on Tuesday afternoon claimed half-a-dozen lives besides leaving as many people injured, including children. In Shravasti district, a thunderstorm followed by rains struck when the villagers were working in fields in Masahakala locality under the Sirsiha police station on Thursday afternoon. The hapless residents rushed to the precincts of the local ‘Kali Mata Mandir’ to take shelter but as luck would have it, a thunderbolt suddenly struck it claiming the lives of Rita (35), her 10-year-old daughter Sushila, residents of Pasiya hamlet and Kusumwati (12)of Masahakala. Kusumwati’s husband Budhai and their five-year-old daughter Ansikha along with the other villagers, identified as Sukha Devi (50), Jagrata (40), Jagdai (35), Amresh and Manju (5), were critically injured while a dozen other villagers sustained minor injuries. All the victims were admitted to the Shravasti District Hospital. In a separate incident in Agra, some labourers were busy in boring of a tubewell at Jagdupur hamlet in Basai Jagner when it started raining heavily on Tuesday afternoon. Reports said that due to rain, current suddenly leaked in a pipe due to which three villagers got trapped. They were later rushed to a nearby private hospital in a critical condition where all three of them were pronounced dead upon arrival. The deceased were later identified as Ramraj Kushwaha (22), Chandrabhan Kushwaha (30) and Babulal Kushwaha (35), all residents of Basai Jagner. The local police which rushed to the spot reportedly registered a case and sent the bodies of the deceased for the post-mortem examination. Meanwhile, eight more persons died in two separate road mishaps reported from Lakhimpur Kheri and Maharajganj. In Kheri, the residents of Bhitwapur hamlet were returning home after a tilak ceremony from Gharghatiya hamlet under the Sadar police station when their tractor trolley suddenly turned upside down after hitting a divider at Gauriya Bhilampur hamlet. As a result, Shriram, Ajay Kumar, Kishori and Nanhu, died on the spot while a dozen other members of their family were critically injured. They were shifted to the District Hospital. In another mishap at Maharajganj, a speeding Maruti car collided head-on with a tempo (UP56T-1259) in Vishrampur locality under the Pharenda police station in which four passengers, identified as Thakur Prasad of Dhani Bazar, Gujrati and Vishwanath, both hailing from Campierganj in Gorakhpur, and Jagdish, a resident of Dharmisadhwa in Siddharthnagar, died on the spot. The other passengers, who were injured along with the occupants of the Maruti car, were shifted to a local hospital. A case was also registered in this connection.