Tuesday, July 4 2006 10:39 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Pelting monsoon rain left at least nine persons dead today as it swamped coastal Orissa, Kerala and Maharashtra and crippled life in suburban Mumbai, where train services were brought to a halt.

Coastal Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh were put on alert as the depression in Bay of Bengal that caused widespread rains in Orissa was expected to cross into the states.

The weather also affected the schedule of President A P J Abdul Kalam's three-day visit to Orissa with officials saying his trip to Berhampur tomorrow stood cancelled.

Eighteen fishermen, missing since Saturday night from Kakdwip in the Sunderbans after their trawler got caught in a storm, were rescued by a joint rescue team of Coast Guard and West Bengal police near the Orissa coast today.

Vamsadhara and Nagavali rivers flooded large areas in south Orissa while a landslide at Jangiripalli village killed at least two persons and a 10-year-old boy was swept away in flood waters at Sanyasipur village in Rayagad district of the state, officials said.

Nine persons were reported missing in the district, three of whom were employees working on a railway track during a landslip. Landslides also affected train services in the area.

Torrential rains, braced by an Arabian Sea pressure gradient, lashed Mumbai and its suburbs with train services brought to a halt due to waterlogging at Wadala station.

Three persons were killed in Maharashtra in rain-related mishaps with two drowning in the swollen Chenna river in Thane and one swept by tidal waves at Worli seaface in Mumbai.

The monsoon has claimed 28 lives in Maharashtra and Gujarat and the countrywide toll at 93.