43 fishermen missing after cyclone lashes India

This boy, right, was injured when a wave demolished his family's hut

MADRAS, India -- Indian authorities said Wednesday 43 fishermen were missing after a severe cyclone tore across India's southern Tamil Nadu state.

No official casualties were reported after the tropical storm moved inland from the Bay of Bengal, ripping up trees and roofs across the coast near the port town of Cuddalore, 111.8 miles south of Madras.

A government official in Cuddalore told Reuters by telephone that the missing fishermen had been at sea since Sunday.

A senior weather department official told Reuters winds had reached speeds of more than 75 mph.

RESOURCES CNN.com - Asia-Pacific forecasts   • Nellore, India    VIDEO CNN's Satinder Bindra shows the devastation Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

Police said road traffic has been paralyzed, with all links to the town of Cuddalore cut, and there had been some reports of disrupted railway movement.

Officials and witnesses in Cuddalore, which bore the brunt of the storm, said the afternoon's gale-force winds had given way to a downpour in the evening.

"It has been raining heavily now in the past hour but the downpour is not as fierce as the afternoon's gale winds which uprooted hundreds of trees and power pylons and blew away the roofs of huts," a police officer told Reuters by telephone from Cuddalore.

He said power supply in the town and neighboring villages had been switched off in the morning as a precaution.

Earlier Wednesday, residents said they had been forced to stay indoors as fierce winds and thunder and lightning marked the storm's passage inland.

A satellite image of the cyclone off the southeastern coast of India on Tuesday

"I have seen dozens of trees uprooted and palm thatch roofs of huts being blown off," D. Nagarajan, a resident of Cuddalore, told Reuters by telephone.

In Chennai, several mud huts had been washed away. Some people had tried to build embankments while others had fled.

The storm also stopped crude oil production at the PY3 offshore platform run by Hardy Oil, which produces 5,000 barrels of oil per day and is located in the Pondicherry basin of the Bay of Bengal.

"We decided to evacuate the rig last evening," a senior company official, who did not want to be identified, told Reuters.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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