At least 34 people have been killed and thousand others remain stranded after heavy rainfall in Gujarat on Wednesday. The downpour was triggered by deep depression in the Arabian Sea, resulting in a flood-like situation.
The Saurashtra region, located on the Arabian Sea coast, was worst affected and heavy damages have been reported from Gir Somnath, Amreli, Bhavnagar, Rajkot and Ahmedabad districts.
Of the 34 casualties, 23 people died in Amreli district, while two people died of electrocution in Surat city, which recorded more than 100 mm rainfall on Wednesday.
"Five people died in Bhavnagar district and two persons died in Rajkot district," state relief commissioner DN Pandey told PTI.
Thousands of people are also stranded in Amreli, Rajkot, Bhavnagar and Gir-Somnath districts, where heavy rainfalls triggered flash floods in the rivers.
Teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State reserve police force (SPRF) have so far evacuated over 5,000 people from low lying areas to the safer places. Around 1,500 people were evacuated from Amreli, 4,121 from Rajkot and 100 from Bhavnagar.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) rescued 87 people stranded in Gavadka and Khari areas of Amreli district.
They also dropped 120 kg of food packets in the affected areas, Principal Spokesperson at the Ministry of Defence Sitanshu Kar said.
IAF carried out rescue & relief ops in Gavadka & Khari in Amreli dist.; evacuated 87 & dropped 120 Kg of food pkts. pic.twitter.com/VZAtDc7hjb
— Sitanshu Kar (@SpokespersonMoD) June 24, 2015
