The death toll from flooding and landslides in India climbed to at least 159 last night, while nine people died when giant boulders bounced down a mountain and hit them.

The rockslide, in the mountainous Kinnaur district in Himachal Pradesh in the north of the country , was captured in dramatic video footage shared on social media, with rocks landing on and destroying a bridge, and hitting parked cars.

Officials said the disaster was separate from monsoon rains, and caused by loose soil due to a lack of vegetation.

Jai Ram Thakur, the chief minister of Himachal Pradesh, said it was “heartwrenching”.

India’s western coast has been inundated by torrential rains since Thursday, with further downpours expected over the next few days.

Flooding and landslides are common during the treacherous monsoon season, but experts say climate change has caused the annual deluge to increase in frequency and intensity.

In Maharashtra state, 149 people have been killed, including more than 40 in a landslide in the hillside village of Taliye, 250km southeast of Mumbai.

Dozens of homes were flattened, leaving just two concrete structures standing, and cutting off power.

Jayram Mahaske, a local villager, said: “Many people were washed away as they were trying to run away.”

Another villager, Govind Malusare, said his nephew’s body had been found after the landslide hit his family’s home, but that his mother, brother, sister-in-law and niece were still missing.

On a visit to the city of Chiplun, Uddhav Thackeray, the chief minister of Maharashtra, said: “Rain, floods, water are not new to the people here but what happened this time was unimaginable and they could not even save their belongings due to the rapid rise of water.”

Eight patients at a local hospital treating coronavirus patients reportedly died after the power supply to ventilators was cut off.  Around 230,000 people were evacuated in the state .

Climate scientist Roxy Mathew Koll, of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, said climate change was warming the Arabian Sea, sparking more extreme rainfall events.