AT least 15 people, including 10 women and three men, were killed yesterday in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu after three houses collapsed completely due to heavy rains, officials said.

The houses collapsed at Nadur village near Mettupalayalam in Coimbatore district, about 502 km southwest of Chennai, the capital city of Tamil Nadu.

“This morning 15 people (10 women, three men, a girl child and a boy child) were killed here after the houses they were residing in collapsed completely due to rains,” a senior official at disaster management in Coimbatore told Xinhua over the telephone. “Our teams are at the spot trying to retrieve bodies.”

The collapse of houses triggered panic in the area.

According to officials, they immediately rushed teams of disaster response force, police personnel and firefighters to the spot to carry out rescue operations.

“Some bodies have been retrieved and search for others is underway,” the official said. “It seems the occupants were asleep when the houses collapsed.”

Rains lashed many parts of Tamil Nadu and neighboring Puducherry on Sunday, triggering waterlogging in several places.(Xinhua)