Fresh flood alert as death toll hits 270

NEW DELHI: India issued a fresh flood alert yesterday for parts of the southern state of Kerala, as the nationwide death toll from the annual monsoon deluge rose to at least 270.

Authorities warned Kerala locals of heavy rainfall over the next 24-48 hours in some of the worst affected regions of the state popular with tourists.

Heavy rain in parts of four Indian states — Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat — has forced more than 1.2 million people to leave their homes, mostly for government-run relief camps.

Kerala was hit by its worst floods in almost a century last year, when 450 people died, and the state is still recovering from the damage to public infrastructure including highways, railways and roads. The state’s death toll this monsoon season increased to 95 overnight, with at least 59 people missing, Kerala police said yesterday.

At least 58 people have also lost their lives in neighbouring Karnataka state, where authorities have rescued around 677,000 people from flooded regions.

The situation is now improving in Karnataka, however, as waters start to recede, a government official said. In the western states of Gujarat and Maharashtra the death toll reached 91, with hundreds of thousands rescued from inundated regions.

“Our teams have recovered 49 bodies so far ... and most deaths were caused due to drowning and wall collapses,” Deepak Mhaisekar, divisional commissioner of Pune said.