The East Raja Gopuam (tower) of the famous Sri Meenakshi amman temple here dating back to 1216 AD suffered damages after a lightning struck it, temple sources said on Friday.
According to the Joint Commissioner of the temple Jayaraman the "Yali Mukham" (the face of a mythical animal) decoration atop the tower suffered damages in the lightning last night.
He said all the four towers of the temple had provided with lightning arrester two years ago and after its installation the tower had been struck by lightining four times and it had been recorded also.
The 150-feet tower had some of the magnificent scupltures depicting the rare stores from Shiva puranam. The horn of the Yali had suffered damages. "It is not a big damage which can be rectified, he said.
The sculputure had been made of mortar and it had fallen off. It would be fixed shortly, the official said.
The city experienced heavy rains accompanied by high decibel thunder and lightining. Several areas of the city did not have power since last night as the electricity officials said the transformers suffered major damages in the lightning.