Floods and landslides killed at least 200 people in western India today and scores more are feared dead after a wall of mud flattened a village.
Thousands of people were evacuated and tens of thousands more were stranded as floodwaters raged throughout the financial capital, Mumbai, bringing road, rail and air links to a halt.
Rescue teams reached the village of Juigaon, 150 km south of Mumbai , and began digging for survivors and bodies after a landslide flattened or buried more than 30 houses late yesterday.
Officials estimated as many as 150 people may have been caught in the avalanche of mud.
"The death toll is likely to increase because we are receiving more reports of deaths from different parts and we have a major landslide," Krishna Vatsa, the state relief secretary, told Reuters.
"Reports that are coming suggest the toll (in Juigaon) would be heavy."
Vatsa and other officials said the death toll elsewhere in Maharashtra state was about 100, including 40 killed in Mumbai.
The army, navy and air force were called in to help as floodwaters swept the Maharashtra coast.
Vatsa said the situation in the worst-affected region south of Mumbai was improving as the rains had stopped and water levels were receding. But rescue work was hampered because the weather had disrupted their communications networks and they were unable to airlift boats as planes could not take off.
In Mumbai, meteorologists said heavy rains and high winds were forecast to continue for another 48 hours, after a record 94 cm of rainfall in the north of the city during the previous day.
Electricity and phone links were cut in Mumbai, schools were shut and commuters were stranded for a second day as trains and buses were cancelled.
"We have already evacuated around 10,000 people," a government spokesman said.
About 40 of the deaths were in Mumbai, including seven children killed by a landslide in the upmarket suburb of Andheri.