57 die in rain, floods in India

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Three days of heavy rain and flash floods killed 57 people across several Indian states and forced more than 100,000 from their homes, officials said Saturday.

The southern state of Andhra Pradesh was the worst hit with 32 dead, down from the previous official toll of 41 as missing people thought to have perished were found.

More than 100,000 people had been evacuated to 95 relief camps, officials said.

Some people feared dead were "traced stuck in trees half-a-kilometre away and have since been rescued in boats," the state's chief minister Rajasekhar Reddy told a news conference in its capital, Hyderabad.

Incessant rains since Thursday night dumped almost 200 millimetres (eight inches) on low-lying areas in three districts, causing rivers and streams to flood.

Most of the deaths took place in the southwestern district of Kurnool.

A disaster management official told AFP there was concern about the situation in Kurnool, where the Kundu River has overflowed and marooned Nandyal, a town of approximately 150,000 people.

Rains had weakened but were expected to continue through Saturday.

State officials said the flooding had disrupted road, rail and air traffic, and caused power and telecom failures.

In neighbouring Maharashtra state, 15 people died in house collapses from heavy downpours and lightning strikes, the Press Trust of India reported.

Another 10 deaths were reported from coastal Kerala state.

Hundreds of people die every year in India due to extreme weather. More than 100 people perished in a heatwave across northern India earlier this month.