At least 35 dead after heavy rain batters south India

By Manveena Suri, CNN

At least 35 people have been killed and dozens more remain missing after heavy rains battered parts of southern India, destroying houses and flooding roads, officials said Monday.

Flash floods triggered by consistent heavy rain killed at least 32 people in Andhra Pradesh, according to the state’s government. The rainfall began late last week, submerging highways and roads, while completely isolating some villages and blocking access to food and water, CNN affiliate CNN News18 reported.

At least 30 people remain missing, officials said.

Relief efforts in Andhra Pradesh are ongoing with 16 national and state disaster teams deployed to evacuate stranded residents, officials said. Nearly 58,000 people have been evacuated from their homes to 294 relief camps in the state, they added.

In neighboring Karnataka state, at least three people have died, disaster management official Tushar Giri Nath said Monday.

“People are mainly residing in their relatives’ places. We are arranging for food for them,” Nath said, adding that 150 homes had been damaged by the rain.

The rainfall was triggered by a cyclonic circulation in the Arabian Sea and low pressure areas in the Bay of Bengal, according to India’s Meteorological Department. It is likely to move toward the coast of southern Tamil Nadu state in the coming days, it added.

Rainfall across the region is expected to decrease over the coming days but is forecast to pick up again later in the week, according to the department.

Parts of southern India have recently experienced spells of extremely heavy rainfall.

Earlier this month, heavy rain in Tamil Nadu killed at least 16 people, while many parts of the state’s capital, Chennai, were waterlogged, Reuters reported. Government officials used pumps to drain water in some communities where residents were stranded waist deep, it added.

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