Late night dust storm in Delhi-NCR, IMD warns of more in next few hours

Reuters photo

A massive dust storm accompanied by light rains and thunder with winds hit the national capital and it's surrounding areas in the wee hours of Wednesday. Strong winds over the speed of 100 kmph, laden with dust, lashed the city. Reports of damage to property and vehicles also emerged.

Trees fell down on cars in Lodhi colony due to strong winds and dust storm in the national capital. #Delhi pic.twitter.com/eJyTaWS84E — ANI (@ANI) May 15, 2018

Delhi: Dust storm, strong winds and light showers hit the national capital, #visuals from #Chanakyapuri pic.twitter.com/hAgj8EPic0 — ANI (@ANI) May 15, 2018

More storms are expected to hit Delhi and surrounding regions including Rohtak, Manesar, Gurgaon, Sonepat and Meerut, in the next few hours, according to Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).

"Thunderstorm accompanied with gusty winds are also very likely at isolated places over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, west Uttar Pradesh, Vidharbha, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Telangana, north coastal Andhra Pradesh, south interior Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Lakshadweep and Kerala," the IMD said in an advisory said.

On Tuesday, two persons died and 18 others injured after two squalls whipped through the national capital. One clocking 109 kmph hit the Safdarjung area at 4:44 pm and continued till 4:46 pm. The other gusting to 96 kmph battered the Palam area at 4:33 pm.

The strong winds knocked down nearly 200 trees in the city. Incidents of wall collapse were reported from Najafgarh, Transit Camp, Nehru Place, Mohan Garden in Uttam Nagar and Raj Nagar in Palam, said a senior officer of the Delhi Fire Service.

Somvati Sinha (56) died after a tree got uprooted and fell on her in east Delhi's Pandav Nagar during the storm, the police said. Sinha suffered severe head injuries and was rushed to a hospital, where she was declared brought dead, they added. 

In another incident, Rohit (19) died after cement sheets and bricks fell on him from the third floor of a house in southeast Delhi's Jaitpur.

Power lines snapped in a number of areas due to the uprooting of trees, resulting in outages. The power supply was disrupted in parts of Najafgarh, Jafarabad, Vasant Kunj, Seelampur and Shahstri Park, a BSES spokesperson said.

Traffic in many areas moved at a snail's pace due to the reduced visibility. 

Operations at the Delhi airport came to a halt due to the dust storm. At least 40 flights were diverted and more than 24 delayed, an official said. 

Metro operations were affected at a number of stations on the Violet and Blue lines after trees fell on overhead electricity (OHE) wires.

With agency inputs