Residents living in low-lying areas of Indian information technology hub Hyderabad are being evacuated as days of rain led to floods in the city.
The National Disaster Response Force and the Indian Army were supporting relief and rescue operations in Hyderabad and several other districts, according to an official in the office of Telangana state Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
The floods brought on by monsoon rains that have been ongoing since Tuesday inundated several districts of Telangana and parts of Hyderabad city, the capital of the state.
IT companies have been advised to give employees a holiday or ask them to work from home until the situation has improved, Telangana's Information Technology Secretary Jayesh Ranjan said.
Google, IBM, Infosys and TCS are among top IT firms with major operations in Hyderabad.
Schools and colleges have been closed since Friday. People in flooded areas were facing shortage of food, drinking water and other essential items, the IANS news agency reported.
The rains showed no signs of abating on Saturday, with the Metereological Department forecasting heavy to very heavy showers for the next four days.
