Chennai floods: Torrential downpours in Indian state Tamil Nadu to continue

'There will be no respite'

An Indian labourer pushes his cycle trishaw through floodwaters in Chennai during a downpour of heavy rain (STRDEL/AFP/Getty Images)

A lady who has been delivering milk for 25 years to residents in Chennai, India, is braving the city's mass flooding to carry on with her work.

She is just one of the six million residents in the city to have been affected by torrential downpours over the last few weeks.

On Wednesday it was reported that Tamil Nadu, of which Chennai is the capital city, had experienced its heaviest rainfall in more than a century and that three more days of torrential downpours were on the way.

Private weather forecaster Skymet estimated that double the average December rainfall had soaked Chennai in the last 24 hours, leading to 200 people being critically injured, according to a senior home ministry official.

The weather has ground everyday life to a halt with the closure of several roads, schools and factories. Thousands of people have had to leave their homes.

Local media also reported that power supplies had been cut.

On Wednesday, the international airport in Chennai was forced to close as junior home minister Kiren Rijiju said the annual winter monsoon rains were the heaviest Tamil Nadu had seen in decades.

Images posted on social media show people wading through the flooded streets and cars almost submerged in water.

Teams from the army and National Disaster Response Force have been deployed to rescue stranded residents and transport those that need medical care to hospital.

And the severe weather shows no sign of easing as a meterologist predicted three more days of torrential downpours. “There will be no respite,” said Laxman Singh Rathore from the India Meteorological Department.

With more rain comes the threat that the river Adyar, which runs through Chennai, will overflow and make the flooding worse.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is currently taking part in the Paris Climate Change Conference, blamed climate change for the torrential rains. He said he had been in contact with Tamil Nadu's chief minister Jayalalithaa regarding the situation.

According to the Times of India, the death toll for rain-related incidents in Tamil Nadu since October stands at 188.

The BBC reported The Hindu newspaper was not printed for the first time since 1878 on Wednesday as the heavy flooding prevented workers from accessing the press in Chennai.

Additional reporting by agencies