Incessant Mumbai Rains Claim 7 Lives Across City

At least seven persons were killed in different incidents between Tuesday and Thursday as Mumbai notched record rains in the city and suburbs, which saw the country's commercial capital paralysed for the third time this monsoon.

A 69-year-old man suffered a cardiac arrest while wading through water at Hindmata, a six-year-old boy, a 62-year-old man, and a civic body staff drowned to death in overflowing nullahs at Nalasopara, Bhiwandi, and Goregaon. A man was electrocuted at Taloja and a youth died after jumping into a creek for a swim at Bandra. Ashok Mayekar, 69, died of cardiac arrest after he fainted and fell near the waterlogged Hindmata junction in Dadar (West) on Wednesday around 4.15pm.

Amongst the deceased was 6-year-old Abu Bakar Zafar Khan, who drowned after he fell into an open drain near his house at Nallasopara while playing with his three-year-old brother in the heavy rain on Wednesday. Arshad Qureshi, 24, was washed away when he and his three friends went for a swim in the swollen Mithi River near Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) the same day. In Taloja, Surendra Parmar, 20, was electrocuted to death after he came in contact with a live wire in his shop, on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the body of 62-year-old Lakshman Tapisar who drowned in a nullah in Naikpada, Bhiwandi, on Tuesday, was found on Thursday after a search operation by the Bhiwandi fire brigade and local residents. Even, two on-duty BMC staffers died on Wednesday after falling in rainwater during a heavy downpour at Goregaon in western suburbs. The deceased, identified as Vijayendra Sardar Bagdi (36) and Jagdish Parmar (54), were employees of P/S Ward of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

At least 1,300 persons living on the banks of the Mithi were shifted by the National Disaster Response Force, disaster management cell of the BMC, fire brigade, and the police when the river crossed the danger mark. Teams of Navy, NDRF and other agencies are deployed along the river as a precautionary measure. In neighbouring Palghar and Thane districts, two persons including a seven-year-old boy were washed away in flooded nullahs on Tuesday and Wednesday.