Heavy downpours killed at least 54 people, and thousands of others were evacuated as swollen rivers flooded their banks in southwestern India, officials said Wednesday. The coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh state were battered by torrential rains following a tropical cyclone that hit the area two days earlier. Railroad tracks and major highways connecting cities along the coast were flooded as the state's two main rivers breached embankments on Tuesday, Shashank Goel, an official in charge of disaster management, said in Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh. More than 35,000 residents of low-lying villages have been evacuated to relief camps set up in government buildings and schools located on higher ground, Goel was quoted as saying by The Associated Press. At least 23 trains, some of them linking north India to the southern parts of the country, were canceled and 12 more were diverted to other routes.
