India Flood Death Toll Rises to 500

Landslides, floods and building collapses caused by the heaviest rainfall recorded in India killed more than 500 people on the western flank of the country and closed down its financial hub yesterday.

More than half the deaths were in Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, a city of 15 million, where the roads began to clear last night. Train services and flights were also resumed after being closed following the rainfall of nearly a metre in one day.

Meteorologists said the city could expect more rain in the next couple of days but that the eye of the storm had appeared to move northwards to Gujarat. Relief workers put the death toll for the western state of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital, at 510.

Rescuers were trying to recover the bodies of an estimated 100 people buried in mud in the village of Juigaon, 95 miles south of Mumbai. "The chances of finding any survivors from Jui are bleak," Suresh Kakine, a senior state relief official, told Reuters.

Half the deaths occurred in Mumbai. A landslide at a slum near the suburb of Andheri killed at least 56 people, and dozens more bodies are believed to be buried in the mud.

The prime minister, Manmohan Singh, and three cabinet ministers arrived in Mumbai yesterday for a helicopter survey of the affected areas.

Mr Singh said Mumbai would get an immediate aid package of 7bn rupees (£90m).

Mumbai's centrality to the Indian economy was underlined by reports that cash withdrawals as far away as Calcutta were blocked because banks in Mumbai lost power during the storm.

The weather knocked out communications during a fire on the Bombay High oil platform and then prevented emergency teams from reaching the platform immediately. Twelve people died and officials said it might take a year to rebuild a platform that produced nearly a sixth of the country's oil.

· A bomb exploded yesterday on a passenger train at Jaunpur, some 400 miles east of New Delhi, in Uttar Pradesh state, killing at least seven people and injuring 50.