Photos: Monsoon storms batter India with floods and lightning strikes

The death toll from the downpours since mid-May has reached 66

Last updated: July 09, 2024 | 08:28

Compiled by Nathaniel Lacsina, Senior Web Editor and with inputs from AFP

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New Delhi: Intense monsoon storms battered India, flooding parts of the financial capital, Mumbai, while lightning in the eastern state of Bihar killed at least ten people, government officials said.

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Mumbai's city council ordered schools and colleges shut Monday as a precautionary measure, reporting that the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had warned of "heavy to very heavy rainfall".

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After hours of heavy rain, many streets in the coastal city were underwater, and several bus and train services were suspended.

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In Bihar, ten people were killed in separate lightning strikes on Sunday, state Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said in a statement, asking people to "stay indoors during bad weather".

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Monsoon rains across South Asia from June to September offer respite from the summer heat and are crucial to replenishing water supplies.

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Commuters pass on a road amid rain, in Kolkata. However, they also bring widespread death and destruction.

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Chunabhatti Railway Station gets waterlogged amid heavy rain, in Mumbai. The number of fatal floods and landslides has increased in recent years, and experts say climate change is exacerbating the problem.

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SDRF team rescue people stranded due to heavy rainfall from Udham Singh Nagar to Arvind Nagar. Floods have also swamped the northeastern state of Assam, with eight people killed in the last 24 hours, Assam's Disaster Management Authority said Sunday.

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That takes the death toll from the downpours since mid-May to 66. In the northern state of Uttarakhand, authorities issued warnings of heavy rain.

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The ferocious storms also bring frequent lightning strikes. In 2022, nearly 3,000 people died from lightning strikes across India, according to the national crime records bureau.

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