Heavy downpours killed at least 54 people, and thousands of others were evacuated as swollen rivers flooded their banks in southwestern India, officials said yesterday.

In Bangladesh nearly 3,500 fishermen were reported missing.

The coastal districts of India's Andhra Pradesh state were battered by torrential rains following a tropical cyclone that hit the area two days earlier.

Railroad tracks and major highways connecting cities along the coast were flooded as the state's two main rivers breached embankments on Tuesday, Shashank Goel, an official in charge of disaster management, said in Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh.

More than 35,000 residents of low-lying villages have been evacuated to relief camps set up in government buildings and schools located on higher ground, Goel said.

Officials said at least 48 people were killed by the strong rains and winds, which flattened homes, knocked down power lines and uprooted trees. Six people were killed when their homes in the coastal districts collapsed on Tuesday.

The Godavari and Krishna rivers were flowing above the danger mark and had breached their banks in several places, flooding fields and farms along their banks.

At least 81,000 hectares of tobacco, rice and vegetables were damaged or washed away by surging flood waters, said Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, the state's top elected official.

"We will have a full picture of the crop losses only after the water recedes," Reddy said yesterday.

Sections of the major highways linking coastal towns to Hyderabad were submerged, leaving hundreds of trucks, buses and cars stranded.

The missing Bangladeshi fishermen were reported after more than 200 fishing trawlers capsized in turbulent waves in the Bay of Bengal after setting sail from the southern Bangladesh coast three days ago.

(China Daily September 22, 2005))