Cyclone Fengal: Seven feared trapped in Tamil Nadu's Annamalaiyar Hill, rescue ops underway

Seven people were feared to be trapped in Annamalaiyar Hill in the Tiruvannamalai district of Tamil Nadu due to a landslide triggered by the torrential rains following Cyclone Fengal. Several houses were believed to be buried under the debris on Sunday (December 1).
A rock weighing approximately 40 tonnes is said to have slid and fallen on the houses under which the people were trapped.
Rescue teams, along with members of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and District Collector Bhaskar Pandian, arrived at the scene with sniffer dogs to undertake the search and rescue operations.
An official of the fire and rescue services said“A large boulder has fallen on the huts located on the lower slopes of the hill. It is raining heavily and rescue operations are going on.”
Reports said that at least five of the seven people trapped were children.
Evacuations have been underway in surrounding areas with about 500 residents from VOC Nagar being rehabilitated to refugee areas. The rescue operations were halted following the incessant rains started again early Monday (December 2) morning.

Continuous heavy rainfall over the past two days has caused waterlogging in several residential areas of the district.

The cyclone is forecasted to cross the north Tamil Nadu-Puducherry coasts and is said to reach the Kerala-Karnataka coasts by Tuesday, December 3. The IMD has issued a red alert in Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasargod districts of Kerala.

Cyclone Fengal made a coastal impact near Puducherry on Saturday (November 30), and has caused severe damage across south India, including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Puducherry. Though the cyclone weakened on Sunday (December 1), heavy downpours under its influence have brought the areas affected to a standstill.