NEW DELHI • At least 15 people died in floods and landslides in India yesterday, officials said, pushing the death toll from the annual monsoon rain pounding the country closer to 200.

Landslides swept at least nine people to their deaths in Manipur in India's remote and hilly north-east, said the state's Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren. ''I am deeply saddened to know that nine precious life (sic) lost due to landslide at three places in Tamenglong headquarter (sic),'' he wrote on Twitter.

Eight of the victims were children, including several from one family, local media reported.

Separately, six people were killed in floods and landslides in Uttarakhand, a Himalayan state in India's north.

Four members of one family were swept away by a landslide and two others drowned in a river swollen by heavy rain, state emergency department official Piyush Kumar said.

The arrival of the monsoon, which lasts roughly from June to September, is heralded by millions of Indian farmers but the relentless rain wreaks death and destruction every year.

Already, 34 people in Assam, another hilly state near Manipur, have been killed since May. Nearly 2,000 others have been forced from their homes by floodwaters. In Maharashtra in western India, 62 people have died since June due to flooding and landslides, said the state's Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil.

Also, close to 60 deaths have been recorded in the country's far south in Kerala since the monsoon hit the Indian mainland, officials said. At least six others were reported dead in western Gujarat state this week following days of heavy showers.

Monsoon rain has also pounded Mumbai since the weekend, causing floods that have interrupted transport services and stranded thousands.

The financial capital floods every year, but in 2005 more than 1,000 people died when around 950mm of rain fell in just 24 hours.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE