NEW DELHI: Almost 50 people have died in 24 hours due to heavy rains in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh, an official said on Saturday.

The state, India’s largest, has witnessed constant rainfall in recent days and rivers have been flowing several notches above warning levels.

The death toll “owing to torrential rain and rain-related incidents” reached 48 in the past 24 hours, the state’s relief commissioner G S Priyadarshi told Reuters.

The rains have impacted about 580,000 people, mostly in the eastern part of the state where there is increased risk of flooding, Priyadarshi said.

India’s monsoon usually starts retreating at the start of September but has been delayed by a month this year. Intense rainfall in many parts of the country has triggered floods that have swamped cane and rice fields and caused deaths in some cases.

On Thursday, at least 11 people died and six were reported missing after the western Indian city of Pune and surroundings were hit by flash floods.