The worst floods in decades to ravage the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh worsened Sunday as fresh rains lashed towns and villages and caused a second breach in a dam, officials said.
The officials said swirling water from the breached reservoir called Foxagarwas gushed towards an overflowing lake in the heart of the state capital Hyderabad.
The Foxsagar dam burst its walls a second time overnight, forcing army and civil engineers to abandon efforts to plug the massive breach on the national reservoir, some 15 kilometers (nine miles) from Hyderabad.
Officials said a 15-foot (4.5-meter) section of the dam exploded under pressure of water around 2:00 a.m. Sunday (2030 GMT Saturday) and 20 neighboring residential districts were immediately swamped.
Around 37,000 people living near Foxsagar were evacuated before the army retreated from the path of the gushing water, they said.
At least 131 people have died since Wednesday when the heaviest rains in 46 years began battering this coastal state.
Andhra Pradesh State Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu tried to allay fears of a catastrophe in Hyderabad and said the Foxsagar waters would not cause much damage.
"My officials have told me that even when the discharge from Foxsagar reaches Hussainsagar it will be minimal and water level will only go up by few inches so there is no need to panic," Naidu said.
The chief minister also urged residents to ignore rumors that the city center reservoir was also on the verge of bursting it walls.
Meanwhile, heavy rains slammed some of the coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh as the downpour returned overnight after a brief respite, officials here said.
Hyderabad meteorological department Chief K.V. Naidu warned of another wet spell.
"A low pressure is moving in a southwesterly direction and in the next 24 hours coastal Andhra Pradesh can expect moderate to very heavy rainfall," the weather department chief told AFP.
Andhra Pradesh has already received 50 percent more rain than it normally does during the monsoon season, Naidu added.
As many as 13 districts in Andhra Pradesh have been severely affected by the flooding, with Guntur, Kurnool, Prakasam, Khammam and Rayalaseema among the worst hit.
The floods have also affected 2,886 villages and towns, and have submerged 177,987 hectares (439,627 acres) of farmland. The damage has been put at around 7.7 billion rupees (177 million dollars).
The collapse of the civic infrastructure in Hyderabad has prompted an outcry against computer-savvy chief minister Naidu's ambitions to turn it into India's largest cyber-city. .
Naidu has said his government was given no opportunity to prepare for the cyclonic rains produced last week by a depression which formed about 100 kilometers (60 miles) off the coast over the Bay of Bengal -- Floods worsen as rains lash southern Indian state – HYDERABAD, INDIA (AFP)
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