One of the most powerful in two decades, Cyclone Amphan entered coastline of India, killing at least 10 people in West Bengal. Amphan entered coastal areas of West Bengal packing winds of up to 190 Kmph at around 2.30 pm on Wednesday.
The eye of the cyclone, 30 km in diameter, has touched land, according to India Meteorological Department (IMD) Director General Mrityunjay Mohapatra. Over five lakh people have been taken to shelters in West Bengal and over one lakh in Odisha.
On Wednesday, Bangladesh confirmed three deaths including a five-year-old boy and a 75-year-old man, both hit by falling trees, and a cyclone emergency volunteer who drowned.
Amphan is the first “super cyclone” to form over the Bay of Bengal since 1999.
Bangladesh evacuated 2.4 million people to shelters. The region has about 58 million people in the two bordering countries.
Among those dead is 13-year-old Laksmi Kumari who stepped out of her house in Raj Chowdhury Lane when a concrete chunk fell on her head. She was rushed to Howrah state general hospital was declared brought dead, The Indian Express reports.
Earlier on Tuesday, NDRF chief SN Pradhan in a media briefing said that a total of 41 teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed in West Bengal and Odisha to deal with any emergency situation.
