On the day he thought he'd be celebrating his wedding, Mamun buried 16 of his relatives.

They had been killed by lightning on the way to the ceremony.

Dressed in their finest saris and suits, his family members boarded a boat to join Mamun, when a heavy
storm struck. As the rain lashed down the boat pulled over and they took shelter under a tin shed on the
riverbank, when they were hit.

Bangladesh, which is blighted by extreme weather and heavy storms, suffers an average of 300 deaths by
lightning every year, according to the UN.

That's compared with fewer than 20 annually in the United States, which has almost double the
population.

It's a heavy burden for the South Asian nation, and for many like Mamun, who is speaking for the first
time about what happened on that day in August 2021.

The 21-year-old was getting ready at his in-laws' home in the Shibganj area in the country's north-west,
when he heard the crackle of thunder, minutes before he got the gut-wrenching news.

He rushed to his family, where he was confronted with a scene of chaos and confusion.

"Some people were hugging the bodies," Mamun recalls, "the injured were crying out in pain… children
were screaming. I was at a loss. I could not even decide who I should go to first."

Mamun's relatives at a funeral ceremony

IMAGE SOURCE,MAMUN

Image caption,

The funerals took place on the evening of Mamun's wedding

Mamun lost his father, grandparents, cousins, uncles and aunts. His mother wasn't on the boat and
survived the lightning attack.
"When I found my father's dead body I simply burst into tears. I was so shocked I fell sick," Mamun says.

Later that evening, the funerals of his relatives took place - the wedding feast they were meant to enjoy
was instead distributed to the homeless.

Mamun later got married, but says he doesn't celebrate his wedding anniversary as it triggers painful
memories. "After the tragic incident, now I am really scared of rain and thunder."

Lightning is a big killer in Bangladesh, claiming more lives annually than floods.

Lightning in Bangladesh

IMAGE SOURCE,SALMAN SAEED

Image caption,

Reported deaths and injuries due to lightning have increased greatly in Bangladesh

The number of reported deaths due to lightning has also risen steeply, from just dozens per year in the
1990s.

Nasa, the UN and the government of Bangladesh cite increased storminess due to climate change as a
reason for the increase in deadly strikes.

"Global warming, environmental changes, living patterns are all factors for the increasing death toll due
to lightning," Md Mijanur Rahman, the director general of Bangladesh's disaster management division,
told the BBC.

Such is the seriousness, that the government has added lightning strikes to the official list of natural
disasters the country faces which includes floods, cyclones, earthquakes and droughts.

The majority of victims of lightning are farmers, who are vulnerable to the elements as they work the
fields through the rainy monsoon months in the spring and summer.

Abdullah's football shirt

IMAGE SOURCE,SALMAN SAEED

Image caption,

Abdullah was wearing his Barcelona shirt when he was struck by lightning

A football shirt, hanging on a rickety fence, overlooking a field in the Satkhira region of Bangladesh is a
poignant reminder of one of the victims.

Just days earlier, the shirt had been worn by Abdullah as he went into the vast rice fields to do his day's
work.

Now, draped over the wooden barrier, the Barcelona football shirt is singed and frayed, the burnt edges
of thread show where the lightning left its mark in May this year.

Abdullah's wife of three decades, Rehana, took me to the field to tell me what happened the day she lost
her husband.

It was bright and sunny as Abdullah and a group of farmers went to harvest rice. By late afternoon a
heavy storm began, and a lightning bolt struck her husband.

"Some of the other farmers brought him to this roadside shop," Rehana says, pointing to a small shack
along the lane. "By then he was already dead."

A picture of Abdullah

IMAGE SOURCE,SALMAN SAEED

Back at Rehana's house, the rice Abdullah harvested a day earlier lies in fresh piles outside the small
one-room dwelling.

The couple had recently taken out a loan to build a second room to extend their modest home.

Inside, the couple's 14-year-old son Masood is reading a book. With no primary earner, Rehana fears she
will be left with a lifetime of debt a