Two killed as dust storm, rain hit Delhi; 70 flights diverted
NEW DELHI: A dust storm and squalls with a wind speed of up to 109 kmph battered Delhi and neighbouring areas today, killing two persons and injuring 18 others, and throwing flight, rail and metro operations out of gear.
The sky turned cloudy around 4:30 pm and gusty winds swept the national capital.
Incidents of wall collapse were reported from Najafgarh, Transit Camp, Nehru Place, Mohan Garden in Uttam Nagar and Raj Nagar in Palam, said a senior officer of the Delhi Fire Service.
Somvati Sinha (56) died after a tree got uprooted and fell on her in east Delhi's Pandav Nagar during the storm, the police said.
Sinha suffered severe head injuries and was rushed to a hospital, where she was declared brought dead, they added.
In another incident, Rohit (19) died after cement sheets and bricks fell on him from the third floor of a house in southeast Delhi's Jaitpur.
Rohit was injured and rushed to Apollo Hospital, where he succumbed to the wounds.
There were reports of uprooting of trees from more than 12 areas in south Delhi.
In Jaitpur, a person was buried in the debris following a wall collapse, municipal authorities said.
According to ANI, as many as 70 flights have been diverted from Delhi's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport due to the heavy dust storm and rain in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) on Sunday.
As the storm blew at a highest speed of 70 km per hour, the mercury crashed from 39 degrees Celsius at 4 p.m. to 25 degrees half hour later, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) told IANS. By early evening, the skies had turned dark.
The Met department had forecast rain and thunderstorm with gusty winds on Sunday.
Power supply was affected in many areas in Delhi and Gurugram in Haryana.
More than 40 incoming flights to the Indira Gandhi International Airport were diverted between 4.15 and 5.30 p.m. due to poor visibility and strong winds, an airport official said.
Nine Delhi-bound flights were also forced to make an emergency landing at Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport, Lucknow, after Air Traffic Control (ATC) didn't permit them to land at IGI due to bad weather conditions.
Vistara's Srinagar-Delhi flight was diverted to Amritsar and its Lucknow-Delhi flight was sent to Lucknow due to the inclement weather.
Delhi Metro operations were also hit. Thousands of commuters were stuck on the winding and busy Blue Line, which links Dwarka in west Delhi to Noida and Vaishali in Uttar Pradesh, for more than 45 minutes.
The Violet Line, one of the six lines of the Delhi Metro that connects Kashmere Gate in north Delhi to Escorts Mujesar in Faridabad in Haryana, was also disrupted.
In both cases, toppling trees fell and damaged overhead Metro wiring, an official spokesman said.
When the Metro services finally resumed after around two hours, the trains plied at halting speed.
However, the relief to Delhi residents came after a sweltering day, when the maximum temperature had reached 40.60 degrees Celsius, a notch above the normal, the meteorological department official said.
Humidity during the morning hours was recorded at 60 per cent, the official added.
Mahesh Palawat, Director of the private weather forecast agency Skymet, told IANS that the change in weather was due to western disturbance which reached Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh on Saturday evening.
"A cyclonic circulation formed near Haryana and north Rajasthan along with the western disturbance. South-easterly and easterly winds are creating moisture and high temperature in the region which caused the formation of thunder clouds. The strom blew over a trough which is spread from north Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
"Delhi falls within the trough, but now this will move towards western Uttar Pradesh. There is a likelihood of light rains with thunder towards the afternoon or evening for two more days. Westerly winds will form again and temperature will begin to rise after May 15," Palawat said.The rains and storm brought down trees and tree branches in some areas and led to traffic snarls, forcing two-wheeler drivers to take shelter under bridges and flyovers. Motorists switched on headlights to find their way in the enveloping darkness.
The Delhi Fire Service said it received over 30 calls linked to falling trees and two calls related to wall collapse within two hours of the storm hitting the national capital. But no casualty was reported.
The dramatic change in weather, however, did bring respite to residents from the sweltering heat.
The India Meteorological Department yesterday predicted that Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh would witness thunderstorm accompanied by squall.
Its forecast said parts of Rajasthan might also see a dust storm.
Thunderstorm over the northern hill-states and its effect in the plains is due to a western disturbance, the IMD said.
"Thunderstorm accompanied with gusty winds are also very likely at isolated places over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, west Uttar Pradesh, Vidharbha, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Telangana, north coastal Andhra Pradesh, south interior Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Lakshadweep and Kerala," the IMD said in an advisory said.
(with inputs from agencies)