Bengaluru Rain Havoc: 111 mm Downpour Kills 9, Triggers Bowring Hospital Wall Collapse & Electrocutions

Bengaluru: Unprecedented rain of 111 mm in two hours wreaked havoc in Bengaluru city on Wednesday evening, killing nine persons, uprooting over 900 trees across the city, creating huge traffic snarls for the evening home goers.

While seven people, including four from other states were killed in the compound wall collapse at government owned Bowring hospital in Shivajinagar, two more were killed in electrocution in different parts of the city.

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While the government is holding a high level meeting for taking precautions to avert any such damages as more rains are predicted for the city on Thursday and Friday, Karnataka Lokayukta B S Patil visited the Bowring hospital and lashed at the government saying that the tragedy was not an accident, but was a man made disaster.

The incessant rain started at around 4.30 pm across the city with heavy hailstorms. Since the city was reeling under heat waves for the last one month, no one anticipated such a heavy rain and the people got stranded wherever they were. At around 5.15 pm, a huge compound wall around the Bowring hospital collapsed, killing seven people on the spot.

The deceased have been identified as Mohammed Abdul Haq of JC Nagar who was a footpath cloth vendor, Fayaz Ahmed of JC Nagar, a footpath footwear vendor, Nasimulla (19), hailing from Assam and engaged in car stickering, Salauddin from Uttar Pradesh, a vendor, six year old Musaveer Begam from KG Halli, Latha K K and Smitha, two tourists from Kerala.

While the vendors had set up their shops facing the road with the help of temporary shelters attached to the compound, the tourists took shelter in one of the shelters. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar and Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil visited the place. The compound was old and had no outlet to release the water accumulated in that part of the hospital, resulting in the wall collapse.

In separate incidents, Syed Sufiyan (19) and Raghu (34) were electrocuted in Shivajinagar and Sarakki respectively, when they accidentally came into contact with live wires during rain.

Meanwhile, around 900 trees were uprooted across the city, leaving huge traffic piles up in the Central Business District area. The Bellary road leading to the airport was one of the worst hit with a huge tree uprooted on Serpentine road in Shivajinagar.

Chief Minister Siddararamaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar have convened a high level meeting of Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) to get ready for any further damage, as the Legal Metrological department has predicted more rains on Thursday and Friday also.

(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)