Heavy rains lashed parts of north India on Monday, resulting in the deaths of at least 18 people, as the annual monsoon covered the country nearly two weeks ahead of schedule, officials said.
Surprise showers struck the capital New Delhi over the weekend, flooding the arrival halls in the international and domestic airports and leading to traffic jams in some parts of the city, the Press Trust of India reported.
More than a dozen people lost their lives due to record downpours in Uttarakhand state, situated in the foothills of the Himalayas, a local official said.
“Fourteen people have died and more than 50 persons are missing, due to landslides and building collapses caused by heavy rain,” Piyush Rautela, director of Uttarakhand’s disaster management centre, said.
Three members of a single family, including a boy died when their house collapsed, crushing them in the state capital Dehradun, Rautela said.
“Dehradun received a record 220 millimetres of rain in a 24-hour-period yesterday. It has been raining non-stop since Saturday morning,” he said.
River water levels are continuing to rise across the states, clogging roads and leaving hundreds of pilgrims stranded on their way to visit Hindu shrines, he added.
Four people died and five others are feared dead due to landslides in the neighbouring state of Himachal Pradesh, a local police official said.
“A family of five, including three children were buried alive when boulders fell on their house in Chagaon village of Kinnaur,” G.Shiva, the police chief of Kinnaur district, said.
“The family was asleep… Rescue teams are on their way to the spot, but villagers say there is only a minimal chance of anybody surviving,” he said.
The rains also caused traffic snarls and delays in train services in India’s financial capital Mumbai.
“This is the first time that the rains have covered the country so early.
Before this, the earliest was on June 21, 1960,” BP Yadav, director of the India Meteorological Department told the Hindustan Times newspaper.
The early onset of the annual monsoon has boosted hopes for the country’s farming sector and its slowing economy.
