20 people feared dead in northeast India landslide

Rescuers were searching Sunday for some 20 villagers feared killed in a landslide triggered by torrential rain in a remote region of northeastern India, a local official said.

The side of a hill collapsed on Saturday on a village in Manipur state close to the border with Myanmar, said local magistrate Memi Mary.

"So far we have reports of 20 people killed when a hillock caved and trapped the villagers," the magistrate told AFP by telephone from the town of Chandel.

Mary said rescuers have arrived at the village in Chandel district after blocked roads hampered efforts to reach the site, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the state capital Imphal.  

Photos showed a bridge washed away by raging floodwaters in Manipur, while TV stations showed footage of a house collapsing and families sleeping in evacuation centres.

The national government has ordered rescue and relief teams be sent to the state as the annual monsoon wreaks havoc across the region.

In the western state of Gujarat the death toll from days of flooding after heavy rain has reached 53, as a result of drowning, electrocution and other incidents.

More than 10,000 people have been evacuated across Gujarat in the past week. But officials said waters were now receding, allowing power and communications to be restored.

"The death toll has reached 53 since July 26 with 23 deaths in the worst-affected Banaskantha district alone," an official in the state's emergency control room told AFP.