At least 200 dead due to monsoon rains in western India

In the hard-hit state of Maharashtra, rescue workers have stopped searching for survivors in the village of Tali, south of Bombay, where 53 were found dead after a powerful landslide. Local authorities say the names of 31 people still missing will be added to the 198 people officially said to have died.

The west coast of India was hit by heavy rains for several days, and a quarter of a million people in three states were forced to evacuate their homes, while large areas were subjected to power outages. But now the deadly monsoon rains have begun to recede.

“The focus has shifted to evacuating the wounded and restoring electricity after the water level receded,” a spokesman for the National Disaster Response Force told AFP.

On Sunday, Maharashtra Chief Minister Udav Thackeray described what happened in the state as “unimaginable”.

The neighboring state of Goa has also been hard hit by the monsoon rains. The foreign minister, Pramod Sawant, said the floods were the worst since 1982.

To the south in Karnataka state, nine people died in the floods and four others were missing, officials said.