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Monsoon rains in India cause 800 deaths

Almost 800 people have been killed in India by landslides and building collapses caused by the country's heaviest-ever recorded monsoon rainfall.

A police spokesman said 270 people died in the city of Mumbai (formerly Bombay) while over 500 been killed by floods and landslides in the west of the country.

Aerial pictures of Mumbai showed much of the city marooned in debris-laden water. Long queues of vehicles were stranded on highways

The city's weather bureau said Mumbai received 944.2mm of rainfall in a 24-hour period, the most rainfall ever recorded in a single day in India.

The annual monsoon rains sweep the subcontinent from June to September and routinely cause widespread devastation.