New Delhi - At least two people were killed as a storm hit India's eastern metropolis of Kolkata hours before cyclone Alia was expected to make a landfall on India's eastern coastal areas Monday, news reports and officials said.

"Two persons were killed when a tree collapsed in the city, while 32 roads have been blocked by falling trees," Kolkata's police chief Goutam Mohan Chakraborty told the PTI news agency as the city experienced heavy rains and wind speeds up to 80 kilometres per hour.

A cyclone alert was sounded and educational institutions had been asked to shut down by 2 pm local time (0830 GMT).

The storm was the precursor of the cyclone which was expected to hit coastal areas in the eastern state of West Bengal late Monday afternoon, the Indian Meterological Department (IMD) said, adding that the neighbouring state of Orissa would also be affected.

A deep depression in the Bay of Bengal had turned into a cyclonic storm which would be accompanied by heavy to very heavy rains, it said.

Thousands of people were evacuated from the two coastal districts where hundreds of mud houses collapsed while there were breaches in embankments flooding 200 villages, the PTI report said.

West Bengal government officials were holding emergency meetings and directing local agencies to carry out contingency measures in the coastal areas.

The world's largest mangrove forests of Sundarbans, straddling West Bengal and Bangladesh, which are home to fishing communities and the endangered royal Bengal tiger, are situated in the vulnerable area.

Meanwhile, daily life was disrupted in several parts of coastal Orissa that saw heavy rains accompanied by high-velocity wind since Sunday.

Low-lying areas were inundated in coastal districts like Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Bhadrak and Balasore districts due to incessant rains, damaging around 400 thatched huts, the report said, adding no loss of life was reported so far in those areas.(dpa)