Tropical storm kills 32 in Tamil Nadu

Chennai: Floods caused by a tropical storm swamped one of India's biggest cities and killed 32 people in adjoining areas, forcing authorities to move people to higher ground, officials said on Wednesday.

Heavy rains brought down houses, uprooted trees and damaged paddy crops in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, officials and witnesses said.

Hundreds of people from low-lying areas in the city of Chennai, the state capital, were moved to higher grounds. Snakes moved into flooded homes in Chennai, forcing people to flee. Some called wildlife parks to get the reptiles removed.

"Several snakes, including cobras, have been rescued so far following distress calls," K.S. Satyamoorthy, a wildlife official said.

At least 32 people died in in the state over the past week, mostly by electrocution as overhead electric wires snapped after the storm, Nisha, swept across the state. Authorities said the storm was expected to cross the Tamil Nadu coast late yesterday and weaken.

At least 24,000 people living near the sea were evacuated, a senior government official said. The unseasonal rains also flooded more than 80,000 hectares of cropland in the southern state, officials said.