India flood toll 850 as flights grounded

BOMBAY - The death toll from western India's worst flooding in nearly a century rose close to 850 as rescue workers pulled out more dead bodies from landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains, officials said.

Authorities braced for further floods as the weather office forecast more rains in the next two days in the western state of Maharashtra and its capital, Bombay.

India's financial hub ground to a near-halt earlier in the week after two days of torrential downpours. "The situation is improving in Bombay. But increased rainfall activity from this morning is worrying us," a relief official said.

Rescue workers continued the grim task of searching for more bodies believed to be trapped under a huge mound of mud and rocks which flattened dozens of shanties on hillsides in Bombay's northern suburb of Andheri.

Authorities have already pulled out 70 bodies, taking the city's death toll to 405 and Maharashtra relief secretary Krishan Vatsa said there could be still more bodies under the debris.

Rescuers retrieved 80 bodies from a landslide four days ago in a village 150 km (95 miles) south of Bombay.

DEATH TOLL TO RISE

"There are at least four landslide sites in the Konkan region where rescue teams have not yet begun to search. So, the death toll could still climb," Vatsa said.

Flights out of Bombay airport -- India's busiest -- were suspended briefly after an Air India Boeing 747 skidded off the wet runway as it landed from the city of Bangalore, officials said. None of the 333 passengers on board were hurt.

"The runway has been cleared again for operations. We hope to clear the backlog of flights by evening," Bombay airport director Sudhir Kumar said.

Train and bus services in Bombay, a city of 15 million, have resumed partial services but some flood-hit areas were still without tapped water, electricity and telecommunication services after four days.

Authorities and health workers continued to clear garbage and carcasses of animals and sprayed insecticide to prevent breeding of mosquitoes in stagnant flood waters.

"Our focus now is clearly to provide relief to people affected. Efforts to distribute medicines to prevent an epidemic outbreak is underway on a war footing," said Vatsa.

Monsoon flooding leads to hundreds of deaths every year in India and covers huge swathes of land in the densely-populated nation, home to hundreds of rivers.

- REUTERS