Torrential rain, floods kill dozens across northern India

Days of intense monsoon rains across northern India have left at least 29 people dead, as well as causing landslides and flash floods in the region, authorities and local media said.

Many areas were rendered inaccessible with bridges smashed and roads blocked, officials said on Monday.

"In the last two days, the death toll due to monsoon rains has risen to 20 in Himachal Pradesh," said Omkar Sharma, a senior official heading disaster management in the state.

Nine more deaths were reported in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and the Himalayan regions of Uttarakhand and Kashmir, taking the toll of those killed since Saturday from a previously reported 15 to at least 29.

In the state of Himachal Pradesh, flash floods over the weekend brought down a bridge and swept away several hutments.

Authorities were waiting for a break in the rains to send helicopter missions to rescue about 300 stranded people, including tourists, in the northern state's areas of Lahaul- Spiti and Kullu.

'Stay at home'

Streets across the northern states, including in Punjab, Delhi and Uttarakhand were flooded. In some areas, rescue personnel used rubber rafts to rescue people stranded inside their homes, local media said.

Schools in New Delhi were closed after heavy rains lashed the national capital over the weekend, and authorities in the Himalayan states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand asked people not to venture out of their homes unless necessary.

"Please stay inside your homes because more heavy rain is expected in the next 24 hours," Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said in an appeal on social media late on Sunday.

Many districts in Himachal Pradesh received a month’s rainfall in a day at the weekend, said a senior weather department official.

New Delhi, Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh have received 112 percent, 100 percent and 70 percent more rainfall than average so far in the current monsoon season that started on June 1, according to the department.

India's meteorological department has forecast more rain across large parts of the country's north in the coming days.