LUCKNOW: At least 37 people have been killed in the past two days as monsoon rains triggered house collapses and flooded wide swaths of land in northern India, officials said Saturday.
Weather officials have predicted more rain in the next 48 hours in India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh.
The deaths occurred since rains started on Thursday night, said government spokesman Awanish Awasthi. Most of the victims died on Friday in Agra, the northern Indian city where the white marble Taj Mahal is located, including four members of a family who perished in a house collapse, he said.
Awasthi said the dead included women and children.
Rains also damaged an outer boundary wall of the 16th century Fatehpur Sikri fort. However, there was no harm to the main monument and to human life, said another official, P.K. Singh.
Singh said authorities closed schools Saturday in the area as the weather department issued an alert for more rains.
India’s monsoon season usually lasts until October.
