A 40-year-old man died due to electrocution in Chennai, which witnessed incessant rains due to Cyclone Burevi on Friday. The labourer, who was not wearing footwear, was crossing the road in Tondiarpet at the time of the incident, said the police.

According to Tondiarpet police sub-inspector Deivendren, Suresh (40), a daily wage worker, was electrocuted to death after he walked in rainwater, which was in contact with a live wire at Vaidyanathan street in Tondiarpet. The sub-inspector said, “There is no possibility that he was electrocuted due to a snapped wire. The water must have come in contact with underground cables. Also, he crossed the water without footwear due to which he was electrocuted immediately.” “We inspected the place thoroughly, so we think that it should have passed from the ground. We have currently sent the body for post-mortem in Stanley hospital,” he said.

The Tondiarpet police have registered a case under Section 174 of The Code Of Criminal Procedure, 1973. 

Many low lying areas in Chennai, including Velachery, Pallikaranai, KK Nagar, Chitlapakkam, Pulianthope and Perambur, experienced water logging in the wake of Cyclone Burevi, which weakened into a deep depression as it crossed the Tamil Nadu coast on Friday morning. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD) bulletin at 1.30 pm, the deep depression over the Gulf of Mannar lay centred close to Ramanathapuram District coast. 

“The deep depression is likely to remain practically stationary over the same region and weaken into a Depression during next 12 hours. Thereafter it will move slowly west-southwestwards across Ramanathapuram district towards south Kerala and weaken into a well marked low pressure area during subsequent 24 hours,” stated IMD.  

IMD predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places with extremely heavy falls at isolated places on Friday and very heavy rainfall on Saturday.