Six dead, 18 missing after Indian dam breached

MUMBAI, India (AFP) — Six people were killed and at least 18 were missing on Wednesday after the heaviest monsoon rains in a decade breached a dam in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, authorities said.

“Using drones, we have located six dead bodies and over 18 people are still missing,” Alok Awasthy, spokesman for India’s National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), told AFP.

“We have deployed two teams after the Tiware dam breach occurred last night and are looking for survivors,” Awasthy added.

Besides NDRF, police teams and government officials were also looking for survivors in Ratnagiri, 275 kilometers (170 miles) from Mumbai.

On Tuesday, a wall collapsed in a Mumbai slum because of the rains, killing at least 22 people and injuring scores as the deluge crippled India’s sprawling financial capital.

Six laborers also died in the nearby city of Pune when another wall subsided.

On Wednesday rains continued to lash the coastal city of 20 million people, bringing it to a virtual standstill as flooding cut train lines, closed the airport’s main runway and caused traffic misery.

Building collapses and dam breaches are common during the monsoon in India due to dilapidated structures that buckle under the weight of continuous rain.

India’s weather department has warned of “extremely heavy rainfall” in parts of Mumbai in the coming days.

According to Skymet Weather, a private-weather tracking agency, Mumbai faces serious risks of flooding with more than 200 millimeters (eight inches) of rain expected in the next few days.