Monsoon rains soak Mumbai

MUMBAI: Heavy rains flooded parts of India’s financial capital of Mumbai on Monday, as the country’s four-month summer monsoon swung into full force.

Children were seen wading through waist-high waters as they made their way to school, while some motorists were forced to get out and push their vehicles through low-lying streets. Trains on Mumbai’s colonial-era rail network, a lifeline for the city’s 20 million residents, were delayed due to waterlogged tracks, and traffic moved even more slowly than usual.

Mumbai’s streets regularly flood during the monsoon, which runs from June until September or October, and which provides India with most of its annual rainfall. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said 91 millimetres of rain fell in Mumbai in the 24 hours up to 08:30 am (0300 GMT) on Monday.

In 2005, 950 millimetres of rain fell on the coastal metropolis in just 24 hours, killing more than 500 people. In August 2017, intense rainfall brought the commercial hub to a virtual standstill for two days and left at least 10 people dead.