Authorities said lightning killed 16 people traveling down the river to a wedding in Bangladesh, according to AFP and DPA.
Five others were injured and taken to hospital.
Guests have just disembarked from a boat in the town of Shibganj, near the border with India and 250 kilometers from the capital Dhaka. “They were trying to escape a storm in the western part of Chapainawabganj when they were struck by lightning,” said Sakib al-Rabi, the city’s governor.
According to the DPA, there were at least 20 people in the open vessel on the Padma River. The groom was among those struck by lightning. Whether he survived is not specified. The bride was not among the passengers of the boat.
Heavy monsoon storms recently erupted in Bangladesh, and heavy rains that lasted a week in the southeastern region of Cox’s Bazar killed about 20 people, including six Rohingya refugees.
Hundreds of people are struck by lightning every year in Bangladesh.
According to official data, in 2016, more than 200 people died from lightning, 82 of them in just one day in May, but most of the victims are not included in the statistics.
According to an independent organization, 349 people were killed by lightning this year.
Some experts believe that the cause of the growing number of deaths is deforestation. In an effort to limit the effects of climate change and the number of people killed by lightning, South Asia has planted hundreds of thousands of palm trees.