At least 18 elephants were found dead atop Bamuni Hills in Assam's Nagaon district on Thursday as lightning struck them during the rains in the area.

"Local villagers informed us about the death of the elephants. We rushed to the spot and found them lying on the ground. We have sent the carcasses for postmortem," a forest official was quoted as saying by NDTV.

The incident took place in Kandoli Proposed Reserved Forest (PRF) in Kathiatoli range of Nagaon forest Division, IBNS said. 

Assam Environment and Forest Minister Parimal Suklabaidya has said he is "deeply pained" by the incident.