The death toll from rains battering India rose to 61 as the downpour flooded states amid forecasts that the savage monsoon was likely to gain fury this week, officials said Tuesday. Seventeen more deaths reported from Gujarat and West Bengal took to 294 the number of people killed in rain-related accidents so far this year, they said.
Gujarat relief officials said 28 people were either washed away, killed by lightning or buried in their collapsed homes during the past three days of non-stop rains in the western state. More than 7,000 people have been evacuated from Gujarat's coastal districts as the rains worsened, and 22 children had to be rescued from their flood-swamped school bus. Districts such as Amreli, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar and Junagadh faced the brunt of the downpour, relief department spokesman said and warned several regional reservoirs were brimming over danger levels.
In the eastern state of West Bengal, six members of a family died Tuesday when rain washed away their hut in a village 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of state capital Kolkata. Three others were killed in separate rain-related accidents Tuesday, state government officials said. No flights took off from Kolkata Tuesday, they said.
In Maharashtra state, where rains left Indian financial hub Mumbai waterlogged over the weekend and disrupted flights and trains as the city's river overflowed, 19 more deaths have been reported since Sunday. Meanwhile in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, five people died, including two boys who were killed when their flimsy huts collapsed, the Press Trust of India said.
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