Maharashtra: Heavy rains in Thane, Palghar; boy drowns, vehicles damaged in wall collapse

Heavy rains lashed Maharashtra's Thane and Palghar districts during the night and on Monday morning, causing flooding at several places and claiming the life of a minor boy, officials said.

Thane city received 151.33 mm rain between 9.30 p.m on Sunday and 7.30 a.m on Monday, an official from local civic control room said.

The neighbouring Palghar district also witnessed heavy showers and received 108.67 mm downpour in the same period, authorities said.

Firemen and disaster cell teams received several calls of tree falls and inundation in both the districts, officials said.

A four-year-old boy drowned after being swept away in a swollen drain in Thane's Ulhasnagar township on Sunday, an official at the police control said.

The body was later fished out and sent to a government hospital for postmortem, he said, adding that a case of accidental death was registered.

A 40-year-old watchman was severely injured when a tree fell on him at a residential complex on Ghodbunder Road in Thane city on Sunday evening.

Besides, the wall of a housing complex on Ghodbunder Road collapsed, damaging five cars and as many other vehicles, civic authorities said.

There were incidents of wall collapse and flooding in some other low-lying areas also, Thane Municipal Corporation's regional disaster management cell chief Santosh Kadam said.

In Palghar, several places in Vasai and Nallasopara witnessed heavy rains, leading to water-logging in low-lying areas.

A four-year-old boy fell in an open drain in Nallasopara and was feared drowned. Efforts were on to trace the minor, Vasai-Virar Municipal Corporation's chief fire officer Dilip Palav said.

In Vasai area of Palghar, at least 80 cooking gas cylinders were washed away in the flood waters, local police said.

Later, the police with the help of firemen shifted the cylinders to a safe place, they said.