India and Pakistan: Monsoon rains claim many lives

More than 40 people have died during monsoon rains in Pakistan and India.

In Pakistan, flash floods triggered by the rainfall destroyed more than 50 homes in the north-western province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

At least 22 people died in the rains, including members of three families buried when their homes collapsed.

At least 20 people were killed in heavy rains in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan in the heaviest rainfall in more than 30 years.

Rescue workers said that they feared the death toll might rise as the floodwaters receded.

Some 20,000 people have been forced to leave their homes because of flooding, junior schools have been closed and rail and transport links disrupted, the BBC's Narayan Bareth in the state capital Jaipur reports.

The state's meteorological department said Jaipur was experiencing the heaviest rains since 1981, causing flooding in low-lying neighbourhoods and slum areas.

Indian officials said that the levels of rain in the desert state were almost 50% above average, Reuters reports.

At least 10 of the people killed in the state died in the city, some of them when their homes collapsed.

According to the Times of India, the neighbouring districts of Dholpur and Dausa were also affected by the rains.

In June, at least 27 people died and a million people were forced to leave their homes by floods as rains lashed the north-eastern state of Assam.

Across the border, in Pakistan, at least 22 people died in monsoon-triggered floods, AP reports.

A total of 13 people died in Pakistan-held Kashmir on Wednesday, nine of whom were members of three families buried alive when the roofs of their houses caved in.

Nine people also died in the north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

A spokesman for the country's National Disaster Management Authority said teams were still assessing the extent of the damage.

"The death toll may rise, we are assessing the damages. Rescue work is continuing and relief activities have started," Irshad Bhatti told Agence France Presse.