15 killed in India monsoon floods and landslides

NEW DELHI: At least 15 people died in floods and landslides in India, officials said, pushing the death toll from the annual monsoon rains pounding the country closer to 200.

Landslides swept at least nine people to their deaths in Manipur in India’s remote and hilly northeast, said the state’s chief minister, Nongthombam Biren.

“I am deeply saddened to know that nine lives were lost due to landslides at three places in Tamenglong headquarter,” he wrote on Twitter.

Eight of the victims were children, including several from one family, local media reported.

Separately, six people were killed in floods and landslides in Uttarakhand, a Himalayan state in India’s north, officials there said yesterday.

Four members of one family were swept away by a landslide and two others drowned in a river, state emergency department official Piyush Kumar said.

The arrival of the monsoon, which lasts roughly from June to September, is heralded by millions of Indian farmers but the relentless rain wreaks death and destruction every year.

Already 34 people in Assam, another hilly state neighbouring Manipur, have been killed since May. Nearly 2,000 others have been forced from their homes by floodwaters.