Heavy monsoon rains and landslides swept the hilly areas of northern India over the weekend, killing at least 47 people, officials said Monday. Twenty-four people died Sunday as falling boulders crushed their homes in three villages in Almorah district in Uttrakhand state, said Prashant Kumar Tamta, a state government spokesman. Another 23 people were either swept away by floodwaters or died when homes collapsed in landslides in Pitthoragarh, Champawat and Uttarkashi regions of state Saturday and Sunday, Tamta told The Associated Press. Rains continued to lash the region on Monday, threatening dozens of villages near Tehri Dam whose water level was nearing the danger level. The area is 250 miles (400 kilometers) southwest of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state, according to a report of the Associated Press.
