India monsoon season death toll hits 69 after floods, landslides

Shimla, India: Flash floods and landslides after torrential rain over the last two weeks killed at least 69 people and injured 110 others in India s n...

Shimla, India: Flash floods and landslides after torrential rain over the last two weeks killed at least 69 people and injured 110 others in India's northern Himalayan regions, officials said Friday.

Scores of people die each year during the rainy season due to flash floods and landslides across India, a country of 1.4 billion people.

Rivers swollen by lashing rain -- including the mighty Beas, which starts from the region's glacial peaks -- disrupted several routes in the state of Himachal Pradesh.

The "cumulative damage" includes 69 people dead, and 110 others injured in different incidents over the past two weeks, the state's revenue department said in a statement.

India's meteorological department Thursday issued a fresh alert for "heavy to very heavy rainfall" in Himachal Pradesh and neighbouring Uttarakhand, another picturesque Himalayan state popular with Indian tourists.