Two toddlers are among at least six people killed as heavy monsoon rain deluged India’s financial capital Mumbai causing transport chaos and forcing schools and many offices to close.
The coastal city of more than 20 million people is the latest to be hit by floods that have ravaged South Asia this monsoon season, affecting millions of people across India, Nepal and Bangladesh and killing over 1,200.
Authorities in Mumbai said today at least five people had died since the intense rainfall began on Tuesday, making roads impassable and briefly shutting the suburban rail network on which millions of commuters depend.
That figure is now understood to have climbed to six.
A car seen submerged in a flooded street following heavy rains in Mumbai, India, on Tuesday August 29 which resulted in the deaths of two toddlers
Streams of Indian people holding up umbrellas in vein wade through a flooded street as car get stuck during heavy rain in Mumbai
An Indian motorcyclist braves the battered streets by riding through the floods as others decide to push their bikes through Mumbai
Commuters desperately try to get to higher ground as rain continues to pound the city of Mumbai resulting in the rail network grinding to a halt
A mother and her son, who is almost up to his shoulders in floodwater, wade through the streets of Mumbai during the brutal rain
Three women, one holding an umbrella, hold onto each other as they cross the street in Mumbai as two men grapple over another umbrella in the background
Tanaji Kamble, a local government official, said: ‘Five people have died in the Mumbai floods. Four of them including two children died due to wall collapse in the slums and another person died due to electric shock.’
Kamble said the rains had eased by Wednesday and added: ‘We are monitoring the safety situation across the city and things are returning to normal.’
Cars were submerged and commuters waded through waist-deep water on Tuesday evening.
Gangadin Gupta, 62, said: ‘I could not find any mode of transport and spent my night on the streets instead of trying to reach home,’.
He said many people had been left stranded for much of the night until the rail network reopened early Wednesday.
An Indian cyclist pushes his bike through the streets of Mumbai and drags a number of bags with him as the rain keeps coming down
Commuters attempt to make their way through a waterlogged street following heavy rains in Mumbai, India, on Tuesday
Vehicles backed up along a road in Mumbai as they are faced with a completely flooded carriageway as people stick close to the barriers while they make their way through the carnage
A man and a boy cross a street, which has the shutters pulled down on the majority of the shops, as they lug a suitcase around
Three men take cover under the a carriageway as cars are left abandoned in the water which submerges the entirety of the tyres
A hooded man pushes his motorbike, which is almost entirely submerged in the water apart from the handlebars and the rear of the bike, through the streets of Mumbai
Residents of Dharavi, one of Asia’s biggest slums and home to more than a million people, said much of the low-lying area was under water.
‘Most of the shanties and houses in Dharavi were submerged in water and we lost all our valuables,’ said Selvam Sathya, 45.
‘All of us took refuge on the first floor of different buildings and the water only started receding this morning. I lost all my belongings in the flooding.’
The transport chaos forced the city’s famed dabbawallahs, who take hundreds of thousands of hot lunches from commuters’ homes to offices every day, to cancel their delivery.
Many of the more than 5,000 dabbawallahs were left stranded in the city overnight, a spokesman for the Mumbai Dabbawallha Association told the Press Trust of India.
Cars parked on the side of the road are submerged by the rising floodwater as three people carrying umbrellas walk the streets
The rain proves too much for these riders, who are forced to push their bikes and bicycles through the floods in Mumbai
A man gets inventive by placing a small bath on top of his head and kicks off his sandals in case he loses them in the rain
A cyclist has absolutely no chance of riding through the waist-height water and is forced to pull his broke through the water
An Indian woman and a girl look frightened as they walk through the water as rain batters Mumbai and are forced to carry their backpacks on their chests
A woman carries her sandals as she wades through the water wearing a full-length hijab while holding hands with a boy who has a plastic poncho over his backpack
People take cover under a blanket of umbrellas as traffic comes to a standstill in Mumbai where at least six people have died
The flooding brought back memories of 2005 when around 950 millimetres (37 inches) of rain fell on Mumbai in just 24 hours, killing more than 1,000 people.
Electricity, water supply, communications networks and public transport were totally shut down during the 2005 catastrophe, which was blamed on unplanned development and poor drainage in the western city.
India, Nepal and Bangladesh all suffer frequent flooding during the monsoon rains which begin in June and last till September or October.
But the Red Cross has termed this year’s floods the worst for decades in some parts of the region.
It says entire communities have been cut off and many are short of food and clean water.
The east Indian state of Bihar has been particularly hard hit, with over 500 people killed this monsoon season.
Around 1.7 million people were reportedly affected by the floods, which are now receding.