Rafiqul Islam Khan, chairman of the Laohati Union Parishad, the bottom tier of local government in Bangladesh, said he heard a loud crack of lighting at about 2:00 p.m. local time.

"A group of people harvesting Boro paddy (winter paddy) in a field at the time were hit by the lightning and six of them died on the spot," he was quoted as saying on the website of leading English newspaper, The Daily Star, which added that 10 others were also injured and sent to different hospitals in the district.

In another lightning incident, one villager from another village in the same sub-district also died while he was harvesting Boro paddy in a field.

Lightning is very common at this time of the year, particularly in rural Bangladesh, a flat, low lying river delta country, as climatic tumult clashes with the change from the dry season to the rainy summer season.

At least 21 people including two children were killed and 19 others injured in lightning strikes in six Bangladesh districts early last week.