Monsoon deaths climb to 749
2005-07-29 18:48
Bombay - Rescuers scouring flood-ravaged neighbourhoods and outlying villages found more bodies, pushing the death toll from record monsoon rains this week in western India to 749, said officials on Friday.
An official at the government's emergency control room, N Nayar, said rescuers were searching vast areas of Maharashtra state, battered this week by deadly rains.
Assistant director at the control room, M Deshpande, said: "The death toll is 749 now, including 376 in Bombay alone."
He said collapsing walls, drownings and electrocutions, caused most deaths.
The toll included at least 15 people, including seven children, who died late on Thursday in a Bombay shantytown stampede set off by rumours of a dam bursting. More than 25 others were injured.
On Tuesday, the cosmopolitan city that was home to India's financial and movie industries was hit by an unprecedented deluge of up to 94cm of rain in some areas, the highest recorded one-day total in India's history.
- AP