Fani: At least 8 killed in Odisha; heading towards NE

Atleast eight people died on Friday after extremely severe cyclonic storm Fani slammedinto Odisha coast. The storm brought rail and air transport to a halt, swampingtowns and villages.

Meanwhile,Cyclone Fani has entered West Bengal crossing West Midnapur district. However,it has relatively weakened and moved in North-East direction with the windspeed of 90 km per hour. Assam is likely to escape the severity of the CycloneFani as it is gradually getting weaker and only the westernmost parts of Assam-Goalpara, Dhubri and Kokrajjhar district may get very heavy rain whileremaining part of lower and central Assam will remain under deep depression.

Severe Cyclone FANI weakened into a Cyclonic Storm and lay centered at 60 km NW of Kolkata at 0530 IST of 4th May. To weaken into Deep Depression and move into Bangladesh by noon. pic.twitter.com/rowlwx2cFb

— India Meteorological Department (@Indiametdept) May 4, 2019

The Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) as well as local Indian Meteorological Department are constantly monitoring the eye of cyclone, which is near Kolkata as of now.

Notably, it is India's strongest tropical cyclone to make landfall in 20 years.