Two persons of a family died when lightning struck them at the Debi riverbed in Jagatsinghpur district on Sunday.
The deceased were identified as Bishnu Charan Bahalia and Pramod Kumar Bahalia of the Biridi area. When Bishnu and Pramod were performing the funeral rites of their relative Usharani Bahalia at the riverbed, lightning struck the area. They died on the spot.
With the help of villagers, other relatives of Bishnu and Pramod recovered the bodies. After being informed, police reached the spot and sent the bodies for postmortem.
A pall of gloom descended on the area as soon as the tragic deaths news broke out.