Hyderabad, Oct 12 (NDTV) : Cyclone Hudhud, which hit Visakhapatnam on the coast of Andhra Pradesh before 11 am on Sunday, has now lost speed, the weather department has said. The cyclone currently has a windspeed of 120-130 kmph.

Here are the latest developments:

The eye of the cyclone which passed over Visakhapatnam or Vizag as it's known left a trail of destruction. Some of the shops in the city have been completely destroyed.

The top windspeed as the cyclone hit land had been 195 kmph along the Andhra Pradesh coast, but the Met department has said that it will drop to half in the next few hours. Northern coastal districts in Andhra Pradesh are being whipped by heavy rain.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu appealed to people to stay indoors. "I appeal to people in coastal districts to stay indoors even 6 hours after the cyclone's effect. Your safety is my concern," he tweeted.

Three people were killed in separate accidents caused by heavy rain in coastal Andhra Pradesh.

Vizag, which has a huge naval base, was hit the hardest. The Met department said that rescue and relief operations there will be crucial in the next few hours. Aircraft should be able to fly over the area tomorrow morning, said officials.

Coastal Odisha is seeing slower winds, but the southern part of the area will see heavy rain, said the Met department.
Strong wind and rains were reported in Vizag, where power lines have snapped, trees have been uprooted, and some roads are blocked now.

At least 400,000 people have been evacuated from the coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.

The evacuation effort was comparable in scale to the one that preceded Cyclone Phailin exactly a year ago, and which was credited with minimising fatalities to 53.

The Indian Ocean is a cyclone hot spot. Of the 35 deadliest storms in recorded history, 27 have come through the Bay of Bengal - and have landed in either India or Bangladesh.