Visakhapatnam: Buddhist stupa damaged due to incessant rainfall

A major part of the famous Buddhist stupa situated in Visakhapatnam's Thotlakonda collapsed on Thursday due to incessant heavy rainfall in the city.

The dome of the Mahastupa, which belonged to Heena Yana stream of Buddhism was damaged due to rains.

Thotlakonda was the epicentre for spreading Buddhism in other countries like Srilanka, Indonesia, Cambodia etc. In past, there were many attempts to preserve the heritage site and to develop the area.

The Indian Meteorological Department on Wednesday predicted heavy to heavy rainfall in the state during next 48 hours.

"Fairly widespread to widespread rainfall with isolated heavy to very heavy falls likely over Coastal Andhra Pradesh during next 2 days," said IMD in its bulletin.