Updated
More than 90 people have been killed and at least 160 injured in India in dust and rain storms that have knocked down power poles and houses and uprooted trees, government officials say.
The powerful storm swept through parts of north and western India overnight, lashing four districts of Uttar Pradesh, Saharanpur, Bareilly, Bijnore and Agra.
Heavy rain and high winds knocked down houses, electricity poles and trees, blocked roads and disrupted power supplies in the worst-affected areas.
"We experienced a fierce storm, with an unusually high wind speed," Hemant Gera, responsible for relief and disaster management in Rajasthan, said speaking by phone from Jaipur, the state capital.
The devastation was particularly severe on Wednesday night in Agra, the northern Indian city where the white marble Taj Mahal is located.
Forty-three people died there as the wind speed touched 130 kilometres per hour, relief commissioner Sanjay Kumar, of Uttar Pradesh state, said.
There was no damage to the monument.
At least 64 people died and another 67 were injured in northern Uttar Pradesh state, Mr Kumar said.
In the western state of Rajasthan, the Press Trust of India news agency said 27 others died and another 100 were injured.
Most deaths were caused by house collapses and lightning.
The rainstorm caught people by surprise as the monsoon season is still more than six weeks away.
Uprooted trees flattened mud huts of the poor, Mr Kumar said, while electricity and telephone lines were snapped.
AP/Reuters
Topics: storm-disaster, floods, india, asia
First posted