Hyderabad: Heavy rains, thunderstorms and gale-force winds killed four people and damaged thousands of hectares of crops in Telangana over the weekend.

Incessant rains, thunderstorms and isolated hailstorms have been lashing seven districts of Telangana since Saturday night.

The unseasonal rains coupled with gale-force winds and hail destroyed ready crops of mango, maize, turmeric, millet, banana, papaya, sesame and paddy across the state. Nearly 3,500 hectare of crop was damaged in Adilabad alone.

Meanwhile, India Meteorological Department, Hyderabad has issued a heavy to moderate rainfall, thunderstorm and hailstorm alert for Telangana and Rayalaseema for the next three days.

“As per the forecast, Telangana and Rayalaseema will be impacted badly in the coming two days. An upper air trough running from Chhattisgarh to Tamil Nadu across Telangana and Rayalaseema is the reason for the rains,” said assistant meteorologist at IMD, Hyderabad, Narasimha Rao.

In Hyderabad, heavy to moderate rains and hailstorms were reported from LakdikaPul, Abids, Nampally, Koti, Amberpet, Secunderabad, Tarnaka, Uppal, Malkajgiri, Erragadda, Mehdipatnam, and Tolichowki.

Many low-lying areas in the city were inundated and traffic was disrupted due to water logging.

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation emergency services number kept ringing throughout the day and officials were working to unclog choked drains and remove stagnant water from the roads.

At Erragadda, even the traffic police joined in on the unclogging operations.