GUJRAT, India: Intense monsoon rains and severe flooding in India’s Gujarat state have claimed at least 28 lives in the past three days, with victims either drowning or being hit by falling trees, according to government officials.
The situation is expected to worsen as the weather department has warned of more heavy rain on Thursday.
The flooding has forced over 30,000 people to flee their homes, and 1,856 people have been rescued by disaster and army officials using inflatable boats and tyres.
The city of Vadodara is among the worst affected areas, and around 1,000 villages are experiencing power outages.
Monsoon rains are an annual cause of widespread destruction in India, but experts point to climate change as a factor in the increasing frequency and intensity of these extreme weather events.
The northeastern state of Tripura and neighboring Bangladesh have also been severely impacted, with at least 60 deaths reported across the two regions due to floods and landslides in the past week.
