Uttar Pradesh's police helpline recently got a strange call when an elderly person made an 'urgent request' for rasogullas. The cop who answered the phone thought it was a prank. But when a volunteer delivered the sweets in Lucknow's Hazratganj, it was found that the man in his 80s really needed them.
Rigorous pumping of water from the nearby abandoned mines is expected to begin on Friday.
The depression over southwest and adjoining southeast Bay of Bengal moved west-northwestwards with a speed of 11 kmph and lay centred at 1130 hrs of Monday over the same region, about 520 km east-southeast of Puducherry and 560 km southeast of Chennai, the Indian Meterological Department said.
This year, the festival is being celebrated amid the Covid-19 pandemic, and many devotees said that they prayed to Chhathi Maiyya to keep everyone safe from the virus. "I am keeping fast without water for four days. We will pray to Chhathi Maiyya to keep everyone safe from COVID-19," says Rinku Devi, a devotee, after taking a dip in the river.
An unspecified number of people were evacuated from coastal areas of Odisha where Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Bhadrak and Balasore were likely to experience heavy rainfall accompanied by high-velocity winds, particularly on May 19 and 20, IMD Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said.
Two heavy duty 140-tonne cranes were pressed into service at the crack of the dawn to clear derailed coaches, from which the survivors were rescued and bodies pulled out till late Saturday night.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday took stock of the flood situation in Tamil Nadu and discussed it with his cabinet colleagues, including the Home and Finance ministers.
A red alert has been sounded in three districts of Idukki, Thrissur and Palakkad in Kerala.
Centre ordered release of Rs 1,086 crore to four states as advance financial assistance for undertaking preventive and relief measures to deal with the cyclone.
The rescuers had to make hectic efforts to remove the mangled frames of furniture, including large sofas, from the rubble at the mishap site.
The bus was carrying 34 staff members of an agriculture university in the Konkan region. It fell into a 500-feet deep gorge at Ambenali Ghat near Poladpur town, District Collector Vijay Suryawanshi said.
The cyclone, according to an IMD report early Sunday, is developing into a severe cyclonic storm over the Bay of Bengal and can potentially become a very severe cyclonic storm in the next 24 hours, S N Pradhan, the chief of NDRF said in New Delhi.
Incessant rains have claimed as many as 29 lives in Andhra Pradesh during the past four days while more than 72,000 people have been evacuated from low-lying areas.
Many elderly villagers said it was for the first time in their decades-old life that they were seeing and experiencing such severe rainfall.
A blanket of thick black smoke engulfed the area causing panic among locals and those visiting Aero India on its fourth day.
With normal life thrown out of gear by the region's worst weather disasters, the authorities scrambled in various parts of the state to restore normalcy.
The Indian Meteorological Department has issued a warning about havoc rainfall or a cloud burst hitting Bihar's flood-affected districts in the next 24 to 48 hours, officials said on Sunday.
There was a rush of people on the bridge, which was reopened for the public just four days ago following the renovation work, when it snapped around 6.30 pm, officials said.
National Disaster Response Force personnel left the spot, while State Disaster Management Department personnel continued their rescue work at the accident site with cranes, earth movers and drilling machines.
Kerala State Disaster Management Authority has warned about the possibilities of landslides in the hilly areas already hit by extremely heavy rainfall in the past few days and directed people living in the region and government authorities to be vigilant.
Here's a recap of events that occurred in India in the past 24 hours.
The operator, Kishore Bhagwat Lokhande, 24, who stays with his parents and two siblings near the bus stand in Mahad, said he got a call on Monday evening from his office, asking him to rush to Kajalpura area as a five-storey building has collapsed.
Fourteen bodies have been recovered so far as massive rescue operations continued at the building collapse site at Mugalivakkam near Porur in Chennai.
Political leaders across parties reacted to the Air India Express aircraft crash, which took place on Friday evening at Kozhikode airport.
He said while the state government had sought Rs 8,481 crore as central assistance, the Centre has provided Rs 940.92 crore.
The National Disaster Response Force, Navy and Coast Guard officials have so far been able to locate only a signboard of one of the missing ST buses .
He said all necessary medical help should be given to the injured, including treatment in India, if required.
'The 100-metre stretch from the opening of this tunnel is completely flooded with debris; the oxygen supply (through the pipes) too had gotten over and the chances of any survivors inside this tunnel are very bleak. Nobody has been able to talk to the people trapped inside'
It said the authorities were making all efforts to save the lives of these persons and the Indian Navy and planes and helicopters of the Indian Air Force have been deployed in the rescue operation.
The IMD has issued an orange alert for Mumbai, warning of very heavy rains at isolated places with strong winds on Monday as the very severe cyclonic storm Tauktae is likely to pass close to the Mumbai coast towards Gujarat.
Two persons were killed and nine injured when an 11-storeyed under construction building collapsed near suburban Porur on Saturday with rescue efforts on by multiple agencies, including National Disaster Response Force.
The death toll in the massive explosion at an industrial unit in Dombivali township of the district has risen to six while 159 injured were undergoing treatment, a senior official said on Friday.
People in Srinagar trying to survive the fury of the floods, which have already claimed 200 lives, are angry and emotional. On Wednesday, four helicopters, carrying relief material, could not land after angry locals threatened to throw stones at them.
Heavy to very heavy rainfall was expected over north Coastal Tamil Nadu and Puducherry in the next 24 hours.
Police accused of serious failings and a cover-up over the 1989 Hillsborough stadium disaster could face investigation after their force said on Thursday it was preparing to refer the case to the police watchdog.
Torrential rains and resultant deluge in 16 districts of Andhra Pradesh last week left 53 persons dead and caused a loss of Rs 3,756 crore, but the situation is returning to normal with floodwater receding.
Many people are feared trapped following two landslides at Shiv temple in the Summer Hill area and the Fagli area of Shimla city.
Rescuers early on Tuesday pulled out the decomposed and mangled body of Sujith Wilson from deep inside the unused borewell, after a futile 80-hour attempt to save the child who had fallen in while playing near his house in Nadukattupatti in Tiruchirappalli.
Shuttering between two under construction metro pillars in Lucknow on Sunday collapsed.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh posed questions for the prime minister ahead of his rallies in Karnataka.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances