Lightning strike kills at least 16 from wedding party in Bangladesh

_{People gather around the bodies of two of the victims in Shibganj, Chapainawabganj district. Photograph: Md Jahangir} 

A lightning strike has killed at least 16 people who were travelling to a wedding and injured several others in Bangladesh, according to local officials.

The bride was not with the group when the lightning struck on Wednesday in Shibganj in the western Chapainawabganj district, according to Sakib Al-Rabby, a local government official.

He said the group had just disembarked from their boat to take refuge because of the thunderstorm when they were struck.

The area is about 150 miles north-west of Dhaka.

The annual monsoon is under way in Bangladesh, where lightning kills more than 200 people, mostly farmers in their fields, each year.

Experts say worsening air pollution and global heating have also contributed to an increase in the frequency of lightning strikes in the country.

Lightning strikes are common across south Asia during the June to September monsoon, which is crucial to replenishing water supplies but also causes widespread death and destruction.

Officials in India said last month that at least 76 people had been killed in the early stages of the monsoon there.

At least 23 people died on 11 July in Rajasthan state, including a dozen who were watching a storm cross Jaipur city from watchtowers near the 12th-century Amer Fort. Officials told local media that some of those killed had been taking selfies during the storm.