BENGALURU: Two people lost their lives while three others are feared dead as over 90mm rain in three hours on Friday evening wreaked havoc in Bengaluru yet again. Three persons were washed away in open drains while a couple was buried alive after a compound wall collapsed on them in three separate incidents. All the incidents took place in West Bengaluru that bore the brunt of heavy rain in the evening.
Nandini Layout in Bengaluru West received the highest rainfall of 91 mm, according to Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre. RR Nagar received 89 mm by 10 pm.
A middle-aged couple Shankarappa and Kamalamma were buried alive after a compound wall of their house collapsed on them when they stepped out to drain out rain water from their premises. In Laggere, an elderly woman Pushpa and her daughter Meenakshi were washed away in a drain. Vasudeva Bhat, a 45-year-old priest of SVK Layout in Basaveshwaranagar, was washed away while walking after footpath slabs suddenly gave way pushing him into the drain. Fire and emergency services personnel conducted search operations till late in the evening.
Heavy rains caused flooding in several parts of the city, including Yeshwanthpur, Mahalakshmi Layout, Basaveshwaranagar, Rajajinagar and Malleswaram. Eight bikes were also washed away due to the force of flowing water at Navarang Junction.
The rain that began at around 5.30pm on Friday peaked for three hours before continued till wee hours of Saturday, with intensity increasing intermittently. BBMP control room received several complaints of water entering homes in Yeshwanthpur. The Yeshwanthpur Traffic and Transit Management Centre had turned into a lake and fire personnel were called to drain out the water. Passengers waiting for buses faced a lot of inconvenience as a result.
Two cars were stuck under the Shivananda Circle underpass as roads were flooded. Bharat, an employee of a private firm said, “I left office at Shivananda Circle at 5.30pm towards my home in Sheshadripuram. I was stuck in the rain for nearly two hours. I was not able to take an alternative route as vehicles had piled up behind me.’’
A fire officer said many families were rescued in Basaveshwara Nagar, Nandini Layout, Kurubarahalli and Yeshwanthpur after water entered their homes.