Rescuers said a lack of earth-moving machinery was also impeding work in Himachal Pradesh state's Kulu valley where Wednesday's flash flood roared through a hydropower project workers' camp.

"Not a single body was recovered (Thursday) by 3:00 pm (0930 GMT), as there is no machinery available at the disaster spot to extract debris and huge rocks," said Kirpa Ram Negi, a paramilitary commander engaged in the rescue work.

An eyewitness painted a grim picture of the site, 26 kilometres (16 miles) from Kulu town.

"The makeshift shanties have been washed away by the torrent. Trees, large boulders and heaps of mud and slush are left in the workers' colony at the edge of the hydropower project," the witness told AFP by telephone.

Rescue workers have put the death toll at around 100, but state legislator Khemi Ram said it could reach 150 "as bodies could still be buried in the debris or washed away downstream by the Parvati river."

The official toll released by Himachal police chief A.K. Puri, however, was much lower.

"In all 35 persons are feared killed with 19 bodies recovered so far and 50 others injured," said Puri, adding that at least 450 people were involved in the rescue.

"Rescue operations are being hampered by the intermittent rains in Kulu... There has been a complete disruption of road links and this is adding to our problems."

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Vir Bhadra Singh, who was to visit the site later Thursday, said 230 workers were asleep in their shanties when the skies opened up.

The Meterological Department said from New Delhi it could not rule out another cloudburst like Wednesday's killer deluge.

Indian President Abdul Kalam expressed sadness at the loss of life among workers who hailed mainly from Nepal and the Indian states of Bihar and Kashmir.

"I understand that many of those who died were working on the hydropower project. I'm sure that authorities are providing all possible help to those injured in the tragic incident," Kalam said in a message of condolence.

Meanwhile, in India's inundated northeastern Assam state, officials reported another two drownings Thursday in the inundated Dhemaji district, taking the local death toll to 30 since a second wave of monsoon floods which began June 27.

"Two youths were trying to salvage some belongings from their flooded home when their wooden rowboat capsized and they were swept away by the strong water current," a police official said.

At least 3.7 million people have been displaced in more than two weeks of devastating floods in Assam, which have swamped 20 of the state's 24 districts.

The authorities have called it the worst flooding in 50 years.

Assam Health Minister Bhumidhar Barman said anti-flood workers were fanned out across the state to offer water purifying tablets, medicine and bottles of saline.

"We are drinking water from a well filled with mud and filth. We do not have any other source of drinking water in this village," said Pramila Kalita, an elderly woman whose Assamese village in Dhemaji has been struck by dysentery and jaundice.

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