Twenty-four people died on September 19 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 September 18 and 19, Tamta told AP.

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 400km southwest of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state.

On September 17, a boat carrying mostly schoolchildren capsized in a flooded river near Faizabad, a town in Uttar Pradesh state, drowning 15 people, said Surendra Srivastava, a police spokesman.

AP