Rains battered western and southern parts of India for the second consecutive day on Wednesday, claiming 67 lives.

In south Gujarat 46 people died. Bharuch district, where 28 died, bore the brunt of the rain fury. More than 13,00O people in the district, which recorded 210 mm of rains in four hours, were shifted to safer places.

Five fatalities each were reported in Surat and Navsari, four in Junagadh, three in Vadodara and one in Valsad.

As the army carried out relief and rescue operations in Surat district, Chief Minister Narendra Modi made an aerial survey of the worst-hit areas and urged Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to announce a generous relief package to the state.

Heavy rains in Kerala triggered landslides and flash floods and claimed 16 lives, including 10 of two families at Nellikunnu in Kozhikode district.

A couple and their three children were killed when gushing waters from a collapsed dam submerged their home at Kulamavu in Idukki district.

A 14-year-old schoolboy died when a concrete slab of a bus shelter fell on him following heavy rains at Neamom.

Nearly 1,000 people were shifted to relief camps in Idukki, Kasargode and Waynad districts.

Incessant rains lashed Maharashtra hitting movement of both local and long-distance trains.

Four people were washed away in Thane district as more than 5,000 villagers residing on the banks of Tansa river moved to safer places.

One person was killed and 14 were injured in separate incidents of wall collapse in Mumbai, where commuters had a harrowing time with several local trains being cancelled following inundation of tracks.

In the north which slowly limped backed to normal after three days of rains, the army carried out rescue and relief operations in flood-hit areas.