Chandigarh, September 15
At least three persons were killed and scores injured after high-velocity winds slammed parts of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh this evening. Power supply was severely affected in the region.

An old building in Ludhiana that collapsed following Sunday’s squall. Photo: Inderjeet Verma

The three fatalities occurred in the Chandigarh area, which remained without power for several hours.

While Kamlesh Kamal (30) was crushed under a bus queue shelter in Mohali, Himanshu, a student of SD College, Sector 32, Chandigarh, died in a wall collapse. The third casualty was reported from Barwala in Haryana. At least 37 persons were injured, three of them seriously, in the area.

The storm, which lasted half an hour, witnessed wind speeds ranging between 70 and 100 km per hour. Scores of trees were uprooted affecting the flow of traffic. The storm also affected health services as blackouts were reported in various hospitals.

Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) CMD KD Chaudhri said: “Seventy-five grids out of 725 were affected. The worst affected areas included Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Khanna and Fatehgarh Sahib. We have restored the supply in Ludhiana to a large extent and work is on at other places.”

Mahabir Jaglan, a geography professor at Kurukshetra University, said the storm was caused by the interaction between the western disturbance and a retreating monsoon.

A report from Karnal said power transmission lines were snapped at several places, resulting in outages that lasted for hours.

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