Heavy rains in Mumbai kill 4, boy washed away

IMAGE: Commuters walk on a flooded street after heavy rainfall in Mumbai on Wednesday. Photograph: Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters

At least four persons were killed in rain-related incidents in Mumbai while search was on for a boy who was washed away, officials said on Thursday.

Torrential rains battered Mumbai and surrounding areas on Tuesday night and Wednesday.

The Santacruz weather station in suburban Mumbai recorded a whopping 242 mm rainfall in the 24 hours ending at 8.30 am Thursday.

Ashok Mayekar, 60, was found dead in Hindmata area in Central Mumbai in the early hours of Thursday.

As the body was floating in floodwater, he seemed to have drowned, though autopsy report was awaited, a police official said.

Mohammed Shahrukh Rafique Shaikh, 24, fell into a creek while wading through floodwater with two friends at Bharatnagar near Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC). He was pulled out by rescue teams but died in hospital.

A boy was washed away when he and his three friends were swimming in the flooded Mithi river near BKC. Divers from the Navy were taking part in the search operation for the boy, police said.

Two employees of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) were found dead in a water-logged area in Siddharth Nagar in Goregaon in western suburbs on Wednesday evening.

Vijayendra Sardar Bagdi, 36, and Jagdish Parmar, 54, were attached to P/S Ward of the BMC, and were involved in the work to ensure that floodwater drained away, police said.

The two apparently drowned, though further inquiry was on.

At least 1,300 persons living on the banks of the Mithi were shifted by the National Disaster Response Force, disaster management cell of the BMC, fire brigade and the police when the river crossed the danger mark.

Teams of Navy, NDRF and other agencies are deployed along the river as a precautionary measure, the official said.

In neighbouring Palghar and Thane districts two persons including a seven-year-old boy were washed away in flooded nullahs on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Laxman Tapisar, 62, resident of Naikpada in Bhiwandi tehsil of Thane, was washed away on Tuesday.

Abu Khan, 7, was washed away after falling into a drain near his house in Nallasopara in Palghar district around noon on Wednesday. Search was on for both of them.