6-year-old boy dies after falling in open gutter in Mumbai`s Nala Sopara

Mumbai: A six-year-old child was found dead on Thursday after he fell into an open gutter in Mumbai's Nala Sopara area. The incident occurred as several drains in the area were opened due to torrential rainfall happening in Mumbai and suburbs over the past two days.

On Wednesday evening, six-year-old Abubakar Sheikh, who lived in Nala Sopara's Santosh Bhavan area, fell into an open stormwater drain. A search was launched to locate him after he went missing on Wednesday night which continued till Thursday morning. Later, his body was recovered by the police team involved in searching for him.

There have been several incidents of young children falling into stormwater drains that were left open due to incessant rainfall in the city. Earlier in July, an 18-month-old boy, Divyansh Singh, who fell into an open stormwater drain near Malad's Ambedkar Chowk area, was found untraceable even after even after more than 140 hours. of rigorous search operations. 

Mumbai continued to reel under heavy rainfall on Thursday even as the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) issued an orange alert in the city and suburbs, asking the authorities to remain prepared. Due to heavy rainfall forecast by IMD, the state government has declared a holiday for schools and junior colleges for Thursday. 

Rainfall in Mumbai's Santacruz crossed 3,000 mm mark on Thursday, September 5. Santacruz witnessed 3078.2 mm of rainfall till Thursday morning while Colaba recorded 2162.2 mm rainfall. The respective record rainfall marks were crossed earlier in 2010 for Colaba and 2011 for Santacruz.

As many as 20 flights from the Mumbai airport have been cancelled due to the incessant rainfall in the city and waterlogging on the airport runway areas. Around 300 other flights stand delayed over heavy rainfall. Local train services plying on Central, Western and Harbour lines were severely hit due to intense rainfall and waterlogging of railway stations.