The strongest rainfall ever recorded in India shut down the financial center of Mumbai, snapped communication lines, closed airports and forced thousands of people to sleep in their offices or walk home during the night, officials reported yesterday.
Troops were deployed after the sudden rains -- measuring up to 944mm in one day in some areas of Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra state -- stranded tens of thousands of people.
As the crisis raged, there was no word on some 130 people feared trapped in mudslides in two villages in the state.
"Most places in India don't receive this kind of rainfall in a year. This is the highest ever recorded in India's history," said R.V. Sharma, director of the meteorological department.
"We have to compare it with world records to find out if this was the highest in the world," he said.
At least 62 people died in Maharashtra and southern Kerala state in weather-related tragedies on Tuesday.
The state-run All India Radio reported about 150,000 people were stranded in railway stations across Mumbai, India's main financial center.
Early yesterday, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, the state's top elected official, deployed the army, navy and home guard to assist with the relief effort.
"Inflatable rafts will be used to reach stranded people. Please try to stay where you are and don't leave your homes," he said.
Tens of thousands of people were stranded for hours on roads in Mumbai, and its airport -- one of the busiest in the country -- was shut on Tuesday evening.
All incoming flights were diverted to New Delhi and other airports.
India's previous heaviest rainfall, recorded at Cherrapunji in the northeastern Meghalaya state, one of the wettest places on Earth, was 838.2mm on July 12, 1910, Sharma said.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
RSS