Cars Swept Away And A Dramatic Rescue In Maharashtra Flood

Mumbai: In a dramatic rescue after a minister received a midnight SOS call, villagers and officials waded into rising water to pull out three people whose car had been swept away in Maharashtra, where heavy monsoon rain has caused floods in many areas.

Dr Surendra Mundada, his wife Pushpa and their driver had left Amravati a little after midnight for Akola about 100 km away when, half-way into their journey, flash floods struck.  

Their Hyundai i20 car got stuck in trees around which flood waters swirled rising higher in the heavy rain. Dr Mundada then called a relative who reached out to Maharashtra minister Ranjit Patil.

"I was asleep and got the call around 1.30 am," Mr Patil told NDTV, detailing how he arranged to have officials reach the spot with boats. It took almost four hours for two rescue teams to bring the three people to safety, pulling them out using ropes. Mr Patil thanked villagers and a local NGO for the "collective effort."

Across the state in Nashik, three cars were washed away as the Godavari River overflowed on to the banks at the famous Ramkund, a religious spot visited by a large number of tourists and which had dried up in the drought that ravaged the state not long ago. No one was in the cars at the time, the police said.  

In Nandurbar, about 200 km from Nashik, flash floods killed four people and damaged almost 200 homes in the village of Pachorbori. 180 cows and buffaloes died.
 
A train headed from Surat to Nandurbar slid off its tracks at midnight. There were few passengers on the train when five of its coaches derailed and no one was injured. Train services in the area were suspended till the tracks are repaired.

Kolhapur in western Maharashtra has also received heavy rainfall in the last three days, and traffic has been disrupted, with heavy water-logging in parts.

Water receded on Monday due to lighter rains since the morning, but the weather office forecasts heavy rain again on Tuesday in many parts of the state.