India’s northeast coastal areas are bracing for a severe cyclone with residents fleeing the eye of the storm.
Storm Fani is slowly making its way toward the town of Puri where special trains were laid on to evacuate tourists and its beaches now lie empty.
All schools have been closed for the past two days and hundreds of shelters have been opened.
As many as 1.2 million people could be evacuated from Odisha state before Fani makes landfall Friday afternoon.
"We are maximising efforts at all levels for evacuation," Odisha’s special relief commissioner Bishnupada Sethi told Reuters.
Fani was producing maximum sustained winds of 170kmh, the India Meteorological Department said.
Ports have been shut down and flights cancelled.
India’s largest carrier IndiGo cancelled flights to Visakhapatnam, while full service carrier Vistara tweeted that it will waive change and cancellation fees for affected flights to Kolkata and Bhubaneswar.
GoAir said it will do the same for flights to Bhubaneswar, Kolkata and Ranchi.
Cyclone Fani is expected to be the strongest to come ashore in India for five years
As well as Odisha it will likely affect West Bengal and possibly Bangladesh, impacting up to 10,000 villages and more than 50 towns and cities.
