Heavy rains in India kill 28 people

Heavy rains collapsed houses and swollen rivers inundated thousands of villages in India’s largest state, killing at least 28 people, officials said today.

Senior relief official Mahesh Dwivedi said: “The situation is grim. At least 28 more people have died due to house collapse and flood-related incidents in Uttar Pradesh in last two days.”

The new deaths brought the state’s toll of flood-related deaths this year to 142.

“All the major rivers of the state are in spate. The Ganga, Gandak and Sharda are flowing over the danger mark in the eastern parts of the state,” Dwivedi said.

More than 2,700 villages have been affected and approximately 2.5 million people have been moved to safer areas, he said.

Incessant rains, lightning and waterborne diseases have killed at least 763 people across India since the monsoon season began in June, according to state officials across the country.

This year’s unusually heavy monsoon rains have also battered India’s neighbours. The toll from monsoon-related deaths has climbed to nearly 1,400 people across South Asia, including at least 236 in Pakistan, 216 in Nepal and 181 in Bangladesh.

In Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh’s capital, and the holy city of Varanasi, river water swamped homes in some low-lying neighbourhoods.

“(In Varanasi) the Ganga has inundated the cremation grounds, forcing people to cremate bodies in residential areas,” said state lawmaker Om Prakash Singh. “It is the worst flood of the decade.”

The weather office predicted scant to heavy rains throughout the state in the next two days.

The monsoon season ends later this month.