Hyderabad/Banglore, October 04: Heavy rains and surging flood water continued to batter Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh claiming 194 lives and inundating vast swathes of land rendering nearly two million people homeless as authorities battled to reach food and shelter to them.
Rescue efforts were stepped up with troops backed by IAF helicopters shifting marooned people in both the states to safer locations.
While 161 people perished in the heavy rains that lashed across 15 districts of Karnataka, 33 people were killed in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh whose five districts were hit by the flash flood affecting more than 18 lakh people.
The death count in both the states is likely to mount as many people in the flood-hit areas have gone missing in Andhra Pradesh and between 11 and 21 persons were feared buried under mounds following a landslide in a hillock at Kadawada village in Uttara Kannada where two bodies have been recovered, officials said.
The Guntur districts of Andhra Pradesh faced the danger of getting inundated as the flood level crossed the six lakh cusecs mark on Saturday evening.
Torrential rains continued to ravage north Karnataka on Saturday bringing vast areas under water and flattening over a lakh houses.
–PTI–