The Greater Chennai Police (GCP) on Tuesday, December 5 announced that the death toll due to rain-related accidents in the city has increased to eight. While the GCP had informed on Monday night that five persons had died, the three others who passed away have been identified as Bharath (53), Selvam (50), and Mirajul Islam (19).
Bharath is reported to have died in a compound wall collapse at Nochikuppam. Selvam, who was working as a security person in the Government Boys’ Higher Secondary School in Choolaimedu, was found dead in the rain water drain inside the school campus. Mirajul Islam, who hailed from Assam and was staying at the Kotturpuram Corporation School relief centre, died due to epilepsy.
Earlier, Padmanaban (50), a native of Dindigul, and Ganesan (70), a resident of Thuraipakkam, died of electrocution while Murugan (35), a resident of Besant Nagar, died after a tree fell on him. Two bodies remain unidentified – that of a man in his 70s who was found near the Vaidyanathan flyover and a woman in her 60s found at the Foreshore Estate Bus Depot. The GCP’s District Disaster Response Team (DDRTs) rescued more than 300 people and removed trees that had fallen from 58 places in the GCP limits.
Several parts of Chennai received more than 20 cm of rainfall on Monday after being hit by Cyclone Michaung. The storm is expected to move in the northern direction parallel and close to southern Andhra Pradesh. The Met Department said that it would become a severe cyclonic storm with a maximum sustained wind speed of 90 to 100 kmph and cross the south Andhra Pradesh coast between Nellore and Machilipatnam close to Bapatla during the forenoon on Tuesday.
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