India evacuates thousands as Cyclone Murasu is set to hit Andhra Pradesh less than a week after deadly Cyclone Arnab

Around 2,000 residents have already been evacuated from low-lying areas of Andhra Pradesh, with authorities planning to move a further 30,000 before Murasu comes ashore between Nellore and Narsapur overnight on Monday. The storm is expected to arrive between 11.30pm Monday and 4am Tuesday local time, with sustained winds of 100 to 110 kmph and gusts reaching up to 120 kmph.

Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu cautioned that between 6,000 and 8,000 electricity poles could be brought down, posing a 'severe threat to power supply'.

Murasu is expected to cause less damage than Cyclone Arnab, which struck the same stretch of coastline on 28 October, killing five people in Andhra Pradesh and leaving homes and crops destroyed.

Arnab's death toll in neighbouring Odisha has risen to six after two bodies were recovered from Gidipabali village, which was flattened by a landslide — ten people remain unaccounted for.