Two dead as cyclone Gulab slams into Andhra Pradesh

Two fishermen from Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh lost their lives in the cyclonic storm Gulab in Bay of Bengal on Sunday evening while another still remained missing.

Three more fishermen reached the shore safely and called state Fisheries Minister S Appala Raju over phone from Akkupalli village and told him they were safe.

Meanwhile, IMD has informed that the cyclone started making landfall and would cross the coast about 25 km north of Kalingapatnam as a cyclonic storm in the next three hours.

The one who made the first phone call still remained untraced and his fellow fishermen fear he may still have been trapped in the ill-fated boat. The Fisheries Minister contacted the Navy authorities to carry out a rescue operation.

The three north coastal districts of Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam had been receiving moderate to heavy rain under the influence of Gulab.

AP State Disaster Management Authority Commissioner K Kanna Babu said Gulab lay centered around 85 km from Kalingapatnam in Srikakulam district and likely to cross the coast between Kalingapatnam and Gopalpur (in Odisha) around midnight.