8 dead as house collapses amid record rain in southern India

A house collapsed in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad amid record rains and heavy flooding, killing at least eight people, police said Wednesday.

In addition to the dead, another four people were hospitalized after a farmhouse's boundary wall fell on a neighboring house, which collapsed with the impact, said police officer Gaja Bhopal Rao.

The house was in a hilly area of the city where the soil was loosened by more than 25 centimeters (9.8 inches) of rain in the past 24 hours, said Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar.

The heavy rain in Hyderabad, caused by a deep depression in Bay of Bengal, broke a record set 20 years ago. It caused flooding in low lying areas of the city, where authorities used boats to evacuate people.

More than 9.6 million people across South Asia have been affected by severe floods this year, with hundreds of thousands struggling to get food and medicine.

About 550 people have died in India, Bangladesh and Nepal, while millions have been displaced from their homes since the flooding began in June.