‘Sound and fury’: Here's what landfall of Cyclone Fani actually looked like

Bhubaneswar: Extremely severe cyclone Fani hit the Odisha coast on Friday morning coupled with heavy rainfall and strong winds with speed of around 200 kmph.

The cyclone was expected to hit the coast around noon which was later changed to anytime between 0800-1100 hours. The cyclone hit the Odisha coast at 0800 hours.

The Press Information Bureau shared a video when cyclone hit the coast and ferocious winds hustled making a loud noise.

"The cyclone has entered the Odisha coast at Puri around 8 am and it will take around three hours for the entire landfall process to be completed," Director of Regional Meteorological Centre, Bhubaneswar, H R Biswas said.

In the wake of cyclone alert, the PMO had convened a meeting on Thursday taking a stock of the necessary arrangements. The teams of NDRF, Navy and Coast Guard were put on high alert.

More than a million people were evacuated from low-lying sensitive areas to safe zones.

The towns of Puri, Paradeep, Gopalpur were hit by winds measuring the speed of 175 kmph.

Rail and air services were also affected as more than 150 trains were cancelled and Bhubaneswar airport was shut.

The administration is closely monitoring the situation and though there were news of trees getting uprooted and damages to the buildings, no casualties have been reported so far.

The states of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh are also keeping an eye on the situation. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has cancelled her election rallies for two days pre-empting the disaster.