Thirteen people, including four children, were killed in house collapse, land slide and electrocution in the last 24 hours as heavy rains lashed Tamil Nadu. The maximum casualty was reported from Kumbakonam where seven people, including four children, died when their house collapsed.

Four deaths were reported from southern Tirunelveli district and one of the victims was washed away in flash floods, reports reaching here said.

One woman died in landslide in Coonoor in Nilgiris district and an old man was electrocuted in Pallikaranai in Chennai on Saturday night.

The regional meteorological department said the low pressure over Bay of Bengal had intensified into a depression and it lay centred 480 km south-east of Chennai. It was expected to move in a west, north-westerly direction and cross the coast between Puducherry and Kavali, near Nellore in Andhra Pradesh, on Monday evening.

As a result, local cautionary signal has been hoisted in Nagapattinam port and fishermen along the north Tamil Nadu coast have been advised not to put to sea.

The met department has forecast isolated heavy rainfall across Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry and south Andhra Pradesh during the next 48 hours.

Most parts of Tamil Nadu received heavy rainfall in the last 24 hours, with Thiruvidaimaruthur in Tanjavur district receiving 16 cm, followed by Usilampatti (Madurai) 12 cm, and Kumbakonam and Kudavasal (Tanjavur) 11 cm each.

Holiday
Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu Government has announced a holiday for educational institutions on Monday as a precautionary measure and taken steps on a war-footing to move people displaced by rains across the State to safer places.

Continuous rains since Saturday night inundated low-lying areas in several parts of chennai and rainwater had entered houses in some places. 

Standing paddy crops have been submerged in many areas in the Cauvery delta districts of Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Tiruchi and Nagapattinam.

The Amaravathi dam in Coimbatore district was surplussing and authorities had issued a flood warning, asking people living downstream to move to safer areas, reports said.