He said another 200 people were injured, mostly in the suburbs. The Edhi Trust aid network also put the death toll at more than 200 as Karachi was deluged by 17.2 millimetres (0.7 inches) in just one hour on Saturday.

Parts of the southern city saw sporadic rioting after a night-long power cuts caused by damage to the electrical grid.

The worst-hit area was the impoverished Gadap neighbourhood, where roofs of shanty houses collapsed on entire families, officials said.

"We have recorded more than 500 houses destroyed or partially damaged due to thunderstorm," the town's deputy mayor Abdus Sattar Brohi, told AFP.

He said the nearby Gujro and Songal areas were also badly affected.

Bodies wrapped in white sheets and plastic bags were seen lying at the mortuary of the Edhi Trust, which runs welfare homes and ambulances.

"We have received these bodies from Karachi and adjoining towns," Edhi Trust official Mohammad Saleem told AFP.

In one incident, at least six heroin addicts sleeping in a drain were killed by a falling billboard.

A local administration official was also killed by a collapsing hoarding, while witnesses said half-a-dozen parked cars were crushed by a falling wall.

Hundreds of affected families were evacuated to makeshift relief centres in schools and other government buildings, while media criticised the authorities for allowing oversized billboards with weak foundations in congested areas.

Health Minister Ahmed said an emergency had been declared at all government hospitals and leave was cancelled for doctors and paramedical staff. Authorities have cancelled school examinations scheduled for Monday.

Officials said the power supply was restored to most parts of the city Sunday. The meteorological office has forecast more rain this week.

earlier related report
144 dead as India's monsoon sweeps westward
Monsoon rains pummeled western India Sunday after easing in southern states where 144 people have died in three days of heavy downfalls and flash floods.

The southern state of Andhra Pradesh was among the worst hit with 38 dead from rainfall which tapered off Sunday.

Incessant downpours since Thursday night dumped almost 200 millimetres (eight inches) on low-lying areas in three districts of the coastal state, causing rivers and streams to flood.

But with the rain easing slightly officials are hoping more than 100,000 people evacuated from low-lying areas to 95 relief camps can return home from Monday as water levels recede.

"By tomorrow the situation should be absolutely normal," state disaster management commissioner Preeti Sudan told AFP Sunday.

"We are trying (to ensure) that (evacuees) return by tomorrow evening or by the day after tomorrow."

State officials said the flooding had disrupted road, rail and air traffic, and caused power and telecom failures.

In coastal Kerala state, 52 people died in the past four days, the Press Trust of India reported. In neighbouring Karnataka, the death toll stood at 39.

In western Maharashtra state, 15 people died in house collapses from powerful storms and lightning strikes, PTI reported, with the heavy rain continuing into Sunday.

Mumbai, Maharashtra's capital and the country's financial hub, received almost 300 millimetres of rain in the 24 hours up to Sunday morning, causing flooding and traffic jams and raising fears of a repeat of deadly floods two years ago.

More than 400 people died in Mumbai in 2005 as silted drains were unable to handle a surprise deluge of monsoon rains that flooded the seaside city.

The monsoon season, which runs from June to September, accounts for about 80 percent of India's annual rainfall, vital for a farm economy which lacks adequate irrigation facilities.

However, the flooding also causes hundreds of deaths and damage to infrastructure, homes and farms across India.

earlier related report
49 killed in storms in central, southwest China
Shanghai (AFP) June 23 - The death toll from recent torrential rains in central and southwest China that triggered flash floods and landslides rose to 49 and 23 missing, the government reported Saturday.

The poor weather that began more than a week ago has left 403,000 homeless and affected more 10 million people, Xinhua news agency said.

The government calculated agricultural damage totalled 1.33 billion yuan 170 million dollars) while the total direct economic losses were 1.79 billion yuan.

The state flood control headquarters added that the heavy rains had greatly alleviated drought conditions that have plagued the area since early last year.

Last year, China witnessed some of the worst flooding in years, when nearly 3,000 people were reported killed or went missing in the annual deluges that strike the nation's rural areas.

Meanwhile, extreme heat and dry conditions in north-eastern China had prompted a drought Liaoning province that had left 1.3 million people without enough water, Xinhua said.

The report said that 25 million hectares (60 million acres) of fields, or more than half the province's total acreage, had been affected as reservoirs and wells had dried up.

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