Nearly 750 Killed in India Monsoon
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Rescuers scouring flood-ravaged neighborhoods and outlying villages found more bodies, pushing the death toll from record monsoon rains this week in western India (search) to 749, officials said Friday.
Rescuers were searching vast areas of Maharashtra state (search), battered this week by deadly rains, said N. Nayar, an official at the government's emergency control room in Bombay, the state capital and worst-hit area.
"The death toll is 749 now, including 376 in Bombay alone," said M. Deshpande, assistant director at the control room. Most deaths were caused by collapsing walls, drownings and electrocutions, he said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The toll included at least 15 people, including seven children, who died late Thursday in a Bombay (search) shantytown stampede set off by rumors of a dam bursting, the officials said. More than 25 others were injured.
On Tuesday, the cosmopolitan city that is home to India's financial and movie industries was hit by an unprecedented deluge of up to 37 inches of rain in some areas, the highest recorded one-day total in India's history. The rains stretched into Wednesday.