At least 74 people died as heavy monsoon rains lashed northern India, bringing dozens of poorly constructed buildings crashing down, police said yesterday.
All the deaths were reported from Uttar Pradesh, one of India’s poorest states, and raised the death toll across the country from this year’s monsoon season to more than 300 people.
“The dead included women and children, as most of the fatalities occurred due to the incidents of houses collapsing,” state police spokesman Surendra Srivastava said.
One of the worst hit places was the Hindu holy city of Varanasi, where 290mm of rain fell in 24 hours.
The deluge caused the walls of one house to collapse, killing nine members of a singe family, Srivastava said. Four others were also killed in the city.
Schools in Varanasi and the nearby town of Barabanki were closed and the Ganges River was overflowing in some points, said Atul Kumar Gupta, a senior state official. Varanasi is 270km southeast of Lucknow, the state capital.
Gupta said families would get 100,000 rupees (US$2,400) in compensation for victims of the flooding.
In the town of Sitapur, 24 people were killed when 12 buildings collapsed, Mritunjay Rai, a government official said by telephone. Sitapur is about 80km southwest of Lucknow.
“Two girls were buried alive as their mud house fell on them,” Rai said.
Officials at the meteorological department warned of more flooding in the days to come.
“A similar pressure area exists over the Bay of Bengal. Under these circumstances heavy rains are expected in next couple of days,” said L.C. Ram, the director of the office.
Monsoon season, which lasts from June to September in India, brings rain vital for the country’s farmers but also massive destruction.
Floods, mudslides, house collapses and lightning strikes kill hundreds every year.
In northeastern India, floods on Wednesday left about 80,000 people stranded and dependent on emergency aid for food and water in India’s remote northeast.
Authorities used motorboats to rush aid to flood victims in more than 70 inundated villages on Majuli, one of Asia’s largest freshwater islands located in the Brahmaputra River, said A. Baruah, a local government official in the state of Assam.
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