New flood warnings as heavy rains continue to pound India's financial hub

MUMBAI, Tuesday (AFP) Heavy monsoon rains continued to pound India's financial hub of Mumbai and the surrounding state early Tuesday as officials issued fresh flood warnings and the death toll neared 1,000.

The city's police chief appealed to residents to stay indoors as meteorologists forecast "heavy to very heavy rainfall accompanied by strong gusty winds" over the next 24 hours in Maharashtra state. Overnight rescue workers found the bodies of 24 more victims of floods and landslides, bringing the state death toll to 993 since the rains began July 25, police said.

Some 409 of them have died in Mumbai, the country's business and entertainment capital. The city of 15 million was limping back to normal even though some low-lying areas remained knee-deep in water.

But Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said flood alerts were issued in four different regions after reservoir levels touched "danger levels."

"Water is being released from various dams in the state and people are being evacuated from low-lying regions," he said after up to 208 millimeters (eight inches) of rain fell in some areas in 24 hours. State Infomation Secretary Bhushan Gagarani said 10,000 people were evacuated from the banks of river Krishna in Satara district east of Mumbai.

"There is a fear of flooding and they have been evacuated. The process is almost over," he said. Federal Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said extra medicines were being sent to Mumbai to prevent epidemics where bloated animal carcasses litter the streets.

"There is no epidemic alert as of now," Ramadoss said. Chief minister Deshmukh said 130 medical teams were working in the city to prevent outbreaks, and the Indian Red Cross Society has also sent anti-malarial tablets and other drugs to fight water-borne diseases.

Flights out of Mumbai airport, India's busiest, were delayed but returning to normal, airline officials said. The airport was shut for two days last week.

Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel urged visitors to avoid the city unless absolutely necessary. Schools and colleges remained were ordered to remain shut for the second day Tuesday but India's leading stock market, the Mumbai stock exchange, banks and government offices were open. Rescue workers pressed on with "Operation Recovery", using bulldozers, cranes and their bare hands to remove rubble from areas hit by landslides and clear mounds of garbage and bloated animal carcasses left by the receding waters.

Analysts said the rains have caused such severe damage to the heavily industrialised state that a government forecast of seven percent growth for the year ending March 2006 may need to be cut to six percent.

An army of around 130,000 municipal workers was repairing potholed roads, unclogging drains and restoring electricity and drinking water. Authorities said power had been restored to 80 percent of areas hit by blackouts.

Mumbai's vast shanty-dwelling slum population was among the hardest hit. Some had huts swept away while others battled to keep meagre possessions dry.

Municipal workers sprayed insecticide to guard against malaria as authorities warned of possible outbreaks of water-borne diseases like hepatitis and jaundice and doctors told residents to boil water before drinking it.

Torrential rains, meanwhile, slammed the neighbouring state of Madhya Pradesh, killing nine people, the Press Trust of India reported. Non-stop rains also hit neighbouring Gujarat late Sunday night, witnesses and officials said, flooding low-lying areas and disrupting traffic. Palanpur recorded 255 millimetres (10 inches) of rain.