29 die in heavy rains, thunderstorms across India

Aug 25, 2010, 9:10 GMT

New Delhi - At least 29 people including 12 children were killed as parts of northern and western India were placed on flood alert after heavy monsoon rains lashed the regions, news reports said Wednesday.

Seventeen people were killed by lighting across the eastern state of Bihar since Tuesday, the IANS news agency reported quoting, disaster management officials.

'Ten men, five women and two children have been killed by bolts of lightning in Bihar,' an official told the news agency. Over a dozen people also sustained burn injuries. Lightning strikes during the monsoon season are common in Bihar.

Meanwhile, 10 children were killed in the neighbouring state of Jharkhand after a school boundary wall collapsed Tuesday evening due to heavy rains, the NDTV network reported.

The victims were not students at the school but neighbourhood children playing near the wall when it crashed following the downpour.

In another rain-related accident, two people were killed after a building under construction collapsed in the suburbs the western city of Mumbai, the report said.

Authorities in the northern state of Punjab and Haryana had sounded a flood alert following incessant rains.

Many villages in Punjab were flooded after a breach in the Satluj river Wednesday morning. The floodwaters gushed into the fields causing extensive damage to the crops.

Heavy rains pummelled national capital Delhi for the seventh consecutive day resulting in flooding and huge traffic snarls.

Delhi's main river, the Yamuna, was flowing 1 metre above the danger levels and authorities had evacuated people living in low-lying areas.

Authorities shut schools and colleges in the southern metropolis of Chennai following heavy rains.

Every year, monsoon-driven floods cause widespread destruction as overflowing rivers submerge villages and farmland. The monsoon season in India lasts from June to October.

According to the federal home ministry, 623 people have died during the monsoon season across India so far. Nearly 4.6 million people, most of them living in rural areas, were affected across 20 states.