Bengal, May 26: As the eastern coastal states of West Bengal and Odisha are on high alert as Cyclone Yaas makes a landfall, videos of a ‘tornado’ swirling over river Ganga has taken social media by storm.
In multiple videos shared by locals across social media sites, huge water spouts twirling high up into the sky were spotted. Residents from Hooghly, Bandel, Chinchurah, and Halisahar captured the rare occurrence on their own gadgets.
Multiple clips showed different spinning movements mostly over the water bodies as dark clouds loomed over. Many people commented on social media that they have never seen something like this before.
Hooghly chinsurah experience sudden #tornado type weather devastating situation here in #WestBengal #YaasCyclone #NewsAlert pic.twitter.com/bIBuMCcyZY
— Bikash Kumar Jha (@vicks_jha) May 25, 2021
Talking to the Media, West Bengal Chief Minister Banerjee described the phenomenon as a “tornado” and said it hit Hooghly and North 24 Parganas districts due to Yaas Cyclonic storm on Tuesday.
However, CM urged people not to panic and advised people to stay indoors and said authorities are closely monitoring the situation.
Also Read: Kolkata police shut traffic movement on 8 flyovers in the wake of Cyclone Yaas
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the ‘Very Severe Cyclonic Storm’ Yaas, which made landfall in Odisha on Wednesday morning would cross north Odisha-West Bengal coasts to the south of Balasore within the next 3 hours with a wind speed of 130-140 kmph gusting to 155 kmph.
Cyclone Yaas intensified into a ‘very severe cyclonic storm’ on Tuesday evening, India Meteorological Department (IMD) director-general M. Mohapatra said. The department has issued a red-coded warning alert to districts along the coasts of Odisha and West Bengal.
