Bhubaneswar: Two persons were killed in separate incidents of lightning strikes in Bahanaga area of Odisha’s Balasore district today.

The deceased have been identified as Upendra Mallick (56) of Osanga village and Manga Mallick (63) of Balarampur village under Baripada panchayat in Bahanaga block.

Lightning struck Upendra and Manga while they were working at their farmlands in the afternoon. The locals rescued the duo and rushed them to Gopalpur Community Health Centre (CHC) in a critical condition. However, they were declared dead on arrival by the doctors, sources said.

On being informed, Gopalpur police reached the hospital and sent the bodies for postmortem after registering two separate cases in this regard.

In another incident, Basanti Patra (38) of Gopalpur panchayat under Bahanaga block sustained injuries when lightning struck her in the afternoon. The incident took place when she was returning home from a farmland, sources said.

“Basanti is now undergoing treatment at Gopalpur CHC,” said a villager.