Five Aiyappa devotees washed away in flash floods

Coimbatore, Nov 18 (UNI) Five Aiyappa devotees were washed away in flash floods when they were taking bath at a waterfall at Thirumurthy in Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu today.

According to police, the mishap occured when some of the 52 devotees from nearby Selyaru in Thiruvannamalai district were taking bath at the waterfalls defying the ban to do so due to heavy rains holding out the threat of flash floods.

They were returning after offering worship to Lord Aiyappa at Sabarimala. The deceased devotees were identified as Ezhumalai(35), Chandrasekharan (23), Manikandan (14), Nandakumar(10) and Mahendran (2).

Police could not trace the victims due to poor visibility following heavy rains and were continuing their search operations.

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