A brief but intense thundershower, coupled with a Nor’wester, claimed at least four lives and destroyed as many as 50 homes in Murshidabad and Nadia districts on Thursday afternoon.

Four persons were killed in Murshidabad when lightning struck them amidst thundershowers at three different locations. In Nadia’s Krishnaganj, as many as 50 homes were razed, and trees and electric poles were uprooted by the storm.

Night-like darkness descended upon parts of Nadia and Murshidabad on Thursday afternoon with strong blows of wind lashing Krishnanagar, Tehatta and Domkal subdivisions, causing destruction to crops and pulse fields.

Cars were seen plying with beaming headlights on NH12 in Krishnanagar.

In Murshidabad, police said two persons were killed in Salar — one each under Suti and Samserganj police stations.Habib Sheikh, 24, and Mekbar Sheikh, 26, were killed in the Khargram area of Salar, where three persons were injured and admitted to Kandi subdivisional hospital.

In Suti, the deceased was Ekram Ali, 69, who was a resident of Bahagalpur village. In the Laxminagar of Samserganj, Salauddin Seikh, 21, was killed and three others injured by lightning.

All the four victims were working on agricultural fields when the lightning struck, police said.

Science and nature-care activist Bibartan Bhattacharyya said: “It is quite unfortunate that every year we lose around 2,000 precious human lives, apart from cattle, to lightning. Most of these victims are farmers. The government and science activists have been tirelessly trying to make farmers aware. But they often put themselves in a vulnerable situation by ignoring the advice.”

In Nadia, gusting winds that blew for about 10 minutes destroyed several houses apart from damaging paddy fields and orchards in several areas.

Krishnaganj block suffered the most, where at least 50 houses were razed and several trees and electric poles uprooted, followed by two blocks of Tehatta and Karimpur where many banana orchards were severely damaged by cyclonic wind.

In Birbhum, several areas, including Santiniketan, were hit by hailstorm, rain and gusty wind.

“The hailstorm and rain brought down the temperature by a few notches,” said a resident in Santiniketan.

The weather office in Calcutta said that gusting winds with an average speed of 40km to 50km per hour blew in parts of 14 districts under Gangetic Bengal, accompanied by thunderstorms.

The IMD’s Calcutta office, in a communication later, warned of a similar spell of thunderstorms with wind blowing at a speed of 40-50 kmph over the next 48 hours in parts of Gangetic region of the state.