Pics by Rons Bantwal

Mumbai, Jun 21: Eight people were killed in a landslide triggered by heavy rains in coastal Ratnagiri district early Saturday morning.

The incident occurred at Harne village in Dapoli tehsil, around 300 km from Mumbai, at 2 am, when the land caved in two houses, burying people who were sleeping inside.

Rescue personnel at the site had removed four bodies — Pravin Pawar (30), his wife Sunita, their children Tanvi (7) and Prathamesh (9) — from the debris. But the rescue operation was hampered due to heavy rains.

Of the Ghags’ family, six sustained serious injuries. The government has announced a compensation of Rs 3 lac to the injured.

In another incident at Dhule, two people died after being struck by lightning.

Since June 1, 73 people have died across the state due to rains.

Over last two days, Konkan witnessed heavy rains accompanied with thundershowers. Ratnagiri received the highest rainfall — 122.5 mm — in 24 hours. Raigad and Sindhudurg received 55.7 and 32.6 mm of rainfall respectively. Mumbai recorded a rainfall of 129.6 mm in the same period.

The India Meteorological Department predicted heavy showers in Thane, Mumbai, Raigad and Ratnagiri over the next 24 hours.

Besides moderate to heavy rains have been forecasted in Konkan, Marthwada, some districts of north Maharashtra and Vidarbha.

The good news is that the storage levels in big dams has increased especially in Konkan and Pune to 18 and 19 per cent of its capacity.

Over the last week, the water storage in the big dams has increased by 238 million cubic metres. Mumbai’s water supplying lakes like Modak Sagar, Tansa is at 16 per cent of its total capacity and measured around 49 million cubic metres on Saturday.