Heavy rains in Chennai on Thursday morning caused the portion of a wall of a residence in Mannady to crash down on a 42-year-old woman. Serena Banu, a mother of two died instantaneously due to grievous injuries she sustained as the wall of her home collapsed even as her family was sleeping.

According to the local police, the incident occurred at around 6.20 am on Iyyappan street. The house was located on temple land and the family had been renting the property. There were four persons in the house including Serena, her mother and two children.

"The house was dilapidated and its structure was very weak," says a police official investigating the case. "It was a house with a tiled roof and it gave in along with a portion of the wall. The rest of the family has moved to a another house in the neighbourhood and are safe. Serena's body has been sent for postmortem.

The police official points that the incident was unexpected but other similar ones can be prevented if residents ensure that their homes are sturdy enough to handle the approaching monsoons.

According to Skymet, Chennai has received 75mm of rain in just the last 21 hours. The rains began shortly after midnight and continued into early morning. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) had told the media on Wednesday that a low-pressure area was likely to develop in the Bay of Bengal. The cyclonic circulation off the Andhra Prasdesh coast could bring rains to Andhra, Telangana and portions of Tamil Nadu.

As per independent weather blogger Pradeep John, who goes by the name Tamil Nadu Weatherman, Wednesday was the wettest day for Chennai city recorded since November 2017. The city received 10 cms of rainfall over a single day as at 8 am on Thursday.