18 dead in West Bengal due to twin storms and rain

Kolkata, April 18: Altogether 18 deaths were reported in the city and four southern districts following the twin storms accompanied by rains which lashed parts of West Bengal on Tuesday night, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said here on Wednesday.

"Eight people perished in Kolkata while six died in Howrah. The storm claimed two lives in Bankura and one each in Hoogly and North 24 Parganas district," she told the reporters at the state secretariat Nabanna here.

Banerjee said 230 houses were totally or partially damaged and 225 electric poles and 255 trees were uprooted by the storms which hit the city and southern districts with a gale speed of nearly km per hour.

She said the ferocity of the wind on Tuesday evening could be compared with the cyclonic storm Aila which ravaged southern West Bengal claiming 149 lives.