Flash flood in Tirumala hills kills eight pilgrims

The toll in Sunday’s mishap of a flash flood in the waterfalls above the Kapilathirtham temple at the foot of the Tirumala hills rose to eight on Monday as the police fished out one more body from the tank beside the temple.

Incessant rainfall in the Tirumala hills over the past week had swelled all the check dams and water tanks in the range, and subsequently led to a flash flood in the twin waterfalls above the historic temple.

The weather had been sunny on Sunday afternoon, but heavy rain in the upper levels of the Tirumala hill brought water cascading down at around 4:30 pm.

Several groups of pilgrims who went for bath and revelry in the waterfalls were caught unawares when the flood waters descended on them. The torrent threw the victims down with a thud into the holy tank, where some other devotees were take a holy dip. Temple priests and the devotees noticed them fall and alerted the local authorities.

The first four deceased were identified as Venkatesh, Nikhil, Srikanth and Thowheed — all local automobile mechanics.  Two of the three more bodies fished out late on Sunday were identified as those of Sachin and Varma Balaji.  One more body of an unknown person was fished out on Monday morning.