MUMBAI (AFP) — Large tracts of India's western financial nave of Mumbai are under water as the weather bureau warned further heavy rains were onward the way and the death toll from the monsoon cataclysm rose to nine.

MUMBAI (AFP) — Large tracts of India's western financial nave of Mumbai are under water as the weather bureau warned further heavy rains were onward the way and the death toll from the monsoon cataclysm rose to nine.

Residents of the city, which Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in 2004 could become a financial middle rivalling Shanghai, were forced to wade in consequence of ankle deep water as workers battled to clear drains clogg with plastic bags and other debris.

Police said that since the rains began lashing the teeming city of 18 million clan on Saturday, two people have been electrocut pair have been hit by lightning while brace street dwellers were crushed at a falling tree.

Three children flooded while playing in a well in a northern suburb

The deaths brought to at least 234 the number who have been killed across India since the arrival of the