Seven persons died in two separate incidents of wall collapse on Wednesday morning as heavy rain lashed Hyderabad and its environs from early Wednesday morning.
A family of four succumbed to injuries at Ramanthapur in Uppal and another three family members - a mother and two girls, were killed in a building collapse at Bholakpur in Musheerabad.
Victims at Bholapur were identified as Bilkis Begum (25), her two daughters Zeba (five) and Mariya (two) while the dead in Ramanthapur were Balaswamy, Chinnamma, Parvathy and Shekar.
House collapses, water logging of roads, and inundation of several slums were reported in different parts of the city.
While three to five centimetres of rain has been recorded between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. in various parts of the city, till 10 a.m. Amberpet area recorded highest of 9.5 cm. followed by Malkajgiri 8.3 cm and Khairatabad 6.5 cm. Moderate to heavy rain was recorded at 15 areas.
The showers were forecast by the met department following a depression in the Bay of Bengal saw the sky turning dark and rains poured in drenching school-going children and commuters.
Water logging and traffic clogs was immediately felt in parts of Banjara Hills, Begumpet, Secunderabad, Nampally, Dilsukhnagar, Nagole, Tarnaka, Shankarmutt, Musheerabad, Vidyanagar, Malakpet, Filmanagar, Kacheguda, Koti, Abids, Basheerbagh, Bowenpally, Marredpally, and several others.
Collapses were reported from Lal Darwaza in old city and Bholakpur in Musheerabad as the GHMC raised its second alarm signal.Municipal officers and staff were on the roads from morning trying to clear the inundated roads, removing silt and plastic from side drains and warning people not to open manholes without informing the municipal or water board personnel.
GHMC Commissioner B. Janardhan Reddy instructed all the deputy commissioners, engineers and others to move into the fields and take up emergency operations.
He appealed to citizens to avoid venturing out unless for emergencies for the next two hours because the rainfall is expected to go on till noon. Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma confabulated with the GHMC Commissioner and reviewed the situation.
Mayor B. Rammohan too rushed to the head office to monitor the situation and give necessary instructions to the field staff.
