India flash floods kill 40 as bridges collapse & homes washed away by mudslides

AT LEAST 40 people have been killed after Northern India was hit by catastrophic flash floods and landslides.

Relentless monsoon rains have submerged hundreds of villages, triggering devastating mudslides that swept homes, cars and locals away.

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The death toll has continued to rise over the last three days, while dangerous rescue missions persisted across the deluged region.

Two people died after the powerful weather caused a bridge in Kangra, in the state of Himachal Pradesh, to collapse.

Another 36 were killed nearby after being swept away by floodwater, while hundreds were forced to seek shelter in relief camps.

Shocking footage captured the moment an evacuated building collapsed in Shimla after being overpowered by a landslide.

Four others also died and 13 are missing in the neighbouring state of Uttarakhand after cloudbursts poured down on terrified residents.

The area was drowned by the weather phenomenon, which occurs when extreme amounts of rain falls in a short period of time.

Officials announced helicopters had been sent to scour remote areas for survivors as forecasters predicted more heavy rainfall will hit.

Authorities in the Ramgarh district of Jharkhand announced five people had been swept away by the Nalkari river on Saturday.

District official Madhvi Mishra said four bodies had been recovered from the swollen river so far, Reuters reported.

Nearly 800,000 people have been affected by the biblical floods in the eastern state of Odisha, with thousands losing their homes.

Indians are also grappling with power outages while navigating roads that have been wrecked by the downpour.

Latest reports suggest at least six were killed in the horror floods, while 120,000 were evacuated from the affected areas.

Locals have also been struggling to ration water supplies, seeing relief provisions being brought in by boat.

Ranjit Kumar Sinha, an official in Uttarakhand’s disaster management department, said: “We have deployed choppers to rescue people who are stuck in remote areas due to rain-related incidents.

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“The rescue operation is in full swing.”

Heartbreaking images show people surveying the damage to their homes and picking up remnants of their lives from the rubble.

Other snaps show the damage to the infrastructure in Northern India, including a flooded bridge and roads that were torn apart by the intense rainfall.

Forceful winds have even uprooted trees and electricity poles, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.

The Indian Meteorological Department predicted that heavy to very heavy rain would continue to fall in the region for the next two days.

At least 20 people were killed in a single day by an apocalyptic lightning storm in India just last month,

Authorities urged locals to stay inside after the horror deaths in the state of Bihar rocked the country on July 26.

Hundreds of people die every year in lightning strikes during monsoon season in India.

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