Five killed in Karnataka floods

The death of a 31-year-old man after he fell into a gushing stormwater drain in Bengaluru took the number of rain-related fatalities to five in Karnataka’s Bengaluru and Mysuru districts that have been battered by rainstorm and lightning over the weekend, officials said. Earlier in the day, a 23-year-old employee of Infosys, drowned after her cab got stuck in neck-deep water at KR Circle underpass near the Karnataka assembly. Five others of her family and the driver were rescued, but she couldn’t be saved. Two farmers died of lightning in Mysuru district and a teenager was electrocuted while tending the fields. The torrential rain also caused extensive damage to private housing, public properties and power cables. The devastation wrought by the thunderstorm brought back memories of last September’s flash flooding from heavy, back-to-back overnight rain that submerged swathes of Bengaluru, including some of its poshest localities.