The death toll due to incessant rains in Andhra Pradesh has reached eight with five people killed due to landslides in Vijaywada.
Vijayawada Municipal Commissioner HM Dhyanachandra told PTI that five persons died due to landslides at Mogalrajapuram.
"Here, it is five (deaths due to landslide). There may be more also," Dhyanachandra told PTI and said debris clearance would be resumed on Sunday morning.
According to the Municipal Commissioner, landslides occurred at one single point in Mogalrajapuram with large boulders falling on two houses due to heavy rain.
Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh each to the kin of the landslide victims.
Naidu has also directed officials to shift people from places prone to landslides as heavy rainfall has been forecast for the next two to three days.
At Pedakakani village in Guntur district, a teacher and two students returning home in a hatchback car died after the vehicle was washed away while crossing an overflowing stream, PTI reported.
"The incident happened around 12.30 pm. Following the suspension of classes due to rain, the teacher picked up two students along with him to return to a village about 3 km from the school and the hatchback was washed away while crossing a stream," the report quoted Guntur district superintendent of police S Satish as having said.
Though the stream was not very big, Satish observed that the car still got washed away as it was a light hatchback. Police managed to trace all the three bodies, he said.
Andhra Pradesh rains: Incessant rains lashed several places in Andhra Pradesh including Vijayawada in the last 24 hours.
In the 24 hours ending 8.30 am on Saturday, Vijayawada city received 18 cm rainfall. The city continued to receive rain on Saturday also.
Officials said multiple teams from the civic body were working towards diverting water from inundated roads back into canals using pumps.
They said 22 places in the city were affected, where the civic body teams have been working since 4 am to divert the water and observed that rain water has also entered into houses in a couple of wards prone to flooding. Incessant rainfall was affecting relief operations, they added.
All the community halls in the city were opened to accommodate the affected people, while food and drinking water were arranged for them, the report stated.
Besides Vijayawada, Machilipatnam also received 18 cm rainfall, followed by Gudivada (17 cm), Kaikaluru (15 cm), Narasapuram (14 cm), Amaravati (13 cm), Mangalagiri (11 cm) and Nandigama and Bhimavaram (11 cm each).
Several other places across the state registered rainfall between 1 cm and 9 cm, according to data shared by the Meteorological Department.
Several roads in Guntur town and also Kaza toll plaza between Vijayawada and Guntur were inundated with rain water.
Roads are inundated and waterlogged in many towns across the state due to heavy rain, throwing normal life out of gear.
Further, the Met Department said the depression over west-central and adjoining northwest Bay of Bengal off north Andhra Pradesh and south Odisha coasts moved northwestwards to lay near 18.1 degrees north latitude and 84.1 degrees east longitude by 2:30 pm on Saturday.
"It is likely to move northwestwards and cross north Andhra Pradesh and adjoining south Odisha coasts between Visakhapatnam and Gopalpur, close to Kalingapatnam late Saturday night," said the Met Department.
