Cyclone Fengal hits Tamil Nadu, causing heavy rainfall, flooding, and disruptions in Chennai, with more rain expected.

Cyclone Fengal has begun making landfall near the Puducherry coast, and is expected to cross the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry coast within the next few hours, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has confirmed.

Cyclonic storm Fengal has commenced making landfall close to Puducherry and it may approximately take 4 hours for it to cross the coast completely, an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official said.

Cyclone Fengal has started making landfall near Tamil Nadu's Puducherry at 5:30 PM on Saturday and it will take nearly four hours to complete. As a pre-emptive measure, the state government appealed to people to stay indoors and declared November 30 a holiday for educational institutions as a precautionary measure.

The IMD stated that Cyclone Fengal is expected to move westward and cross the north Tamil Nadu-Puducherry coast between Karaikal and Mahabalipuram near Puducherry as a cyclonic storm, with wind speeds of 70-80 kmph, gusting up to 90 kmph, by the evening of November 30.

Over 50 flights were cancelled, leaving thousands of passengers stranded at the airport and in neighbouring states.

Chennai and neighbourhood areas in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry reported heavy rainfall on Saturday with intense continuing as the cyclone Fengal's landfall process commences at around 7pm.

The cyclone is likely to continue moving west-northwestward and cross the north Tamil Nadu-Puducherry coasts between Karaikal and Mahabalipuram, near Puducherry, as a cyclonic storm with wind speeds of 70-80 km/h, gusting to 90 km/h, during the afternoon of November 30.

Parts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry experienced heavy rains due to the landfall process of cyclone Fengal. Senior officials in three southern states, including Andhra Pradesh assigned to supervise and coordinate related tasks with district authorities are stationed in their respective districts.

Chennai airport on Friday announced suspension of operations till 4 am on December 1 following heavy inundation of runways and the taxiway, due to the cyclone 'Fengal' triggered rains and the 'adverse weather condition,

The airport was earlier closed from noon to 7pm on Saturday as airlines cited difficulties in landing and taking off due to heavy crosswinds.