Monsoon floods claim at least 28 lives in Gujarat, India

Intense monsoon rains and floods have wreaked havoc in India’s Gujarat state, claiming the lives of at least 28 people, with more heavy rain predicted by the weather department. Rivers have overflowed, displacing over 30,000 residents who were forced to flee their homes.

The state government reported 13 drownings and the rest of the deaths were caused by collapsing houses or trees. The Indian Express newspaper put the death toll at 35, prompting disaster and army officials to rescue 1,856 individuals. Vadodara, among the worst-hit cities, suffered from widespread electricity outages affecting about 1,000 villages.

Images and videos of the disaster response efforts showed authorities using boats to rescue those stranded. Climate change is believed to be exacerbating extreme weather events like these floods, which also affected Tripura in India and Bangladesh, where at least 40 people died and almost 300,000 sought shelter in emergency facilities.