Monsoon rains caused wall collapses that killed 27 people in India on Tuesday, as a second day of bad weather disrupted rail and air traffic in the financial capital Mumbai, prompting officials to shut schools and offices, though markets were open.
Weather officials confirmed that Mumbai had received the heaviest rain over a 24-hour period in a decade and sounded a red alert, warning of more rains.
Eighteen people died and 50 were injured when a wall collapsed on a slum cluster in the city’s East Malad area early Tuesday after incessant rains, a police officer said.
“Rescue work is still going on,” a fire brigade official said. “So far we have rescued more than two dozen people.”
In Mumbai’s suburb of Thane, three people, including a 3-year-old boy, were killed after a wall of a school crashed on two houses, according to the police.
In the Ambegaon area of Pune, some 200 kilometers from the city, six workers were killed in a similar rain-related collapse on Tuesday morning, the Indian Express daily reported.
Mumbai is looking to turn itself into a global financial hub but large parts of the city struggle to cope with annual monsoon rains, as widespread construction and garbage-clogged drains and waterways make it increasingly vulnerable to chaos.
More than 300 mm (11.8 inches) of rain fell over 24 hours in some areas of Mumbai, flooding streets and railway tracks, forcing the suspension of some suburban train services, which millions of commuters ride to work each day.
About 1,000 people stranded in low-lying areas of the city were rescued after a swollen river began to overflow, municipal authorities said.
As weather officials forecast intermittent heavy showers and isolated extremely heavy rainfall, authorities called a holiday for government offices and educational institutions.
“Rain is expected to remain intense even today,” city authorities said on Twitter. “We request you to stay indoors unless there’s an emergency.”
Financial markets were open on Tuesday, though trading volumes were expected to be lower than normal. Many firms asked employees to work from home.
The main runway at Mumbai airport, India’s second biggest, was closed from midnight after a SpiceJet flight overshot the runway while landing, an airport spokeswoman said.
The secondary runway is operational, but 55 flights were diverted and another 52 were canceled due to bad weather, she said.
One of the biggest cities on Earth with around 20 million inhabitants, Mumbai, receives heavy rainfall every monsoon season between June and September.
In 2005, floods killed more than 500 people in Mumbai, the majority in shantytown slums home to more than half the city’s population.
