KOLKATA: At least eight people died in Kolkata on Tuesday as a seven-km column of cloud dumped 252mm of rain on the city in seven hours overnight. The deaths, all from electrocution and spread across the city, occurred as citizens unknowingly stepped on or touched live wires on flooded streets.

The rain started around 11.30pm on Monday and ended around 6.30am on Tuesday, but the most intense spell came between 3am and 4am when Kolkata received 98mm of rain as the massive cloud build-up, caused by a low pressure, led to a deluge. To put things in perspec-tive, Kolkata’s total annual average rainfall is 1,345mm; this means the city got almost 20% of its total yearly rainfall in the space of only seven hours. Of this, maximum rain happened in a span of three hours between 2.30am and 5.30

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