Nearly 40 people have died and more are missing after flooding struck India’s northern Uttarakhand state officials said Wednesday.

Video from the area shows rivers overflowing their banks and some villages partially submerged, Reuters reported.

Rescue workers searched through the night to evacuate people and recover bodies.

At least 28 were killed in the town of Nainital, while a family of nine was killed in the Ramgarh district.

Heavy rains have pelted the region for three days, leading to floods that washed out roads and bridges and caused landslides.

"There is huge loss due to the floods … the crops have been destroyed," Pushkar Singh Dhami told Reuters partner ANI after seeing the damage Tuesday.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that he was “anguished” by the number of dead.

The area received 17.8 centimeters of rain in the first weeks of the month, but saw 58 centimeters in just 22 hours Tuesday, said Bikram Singh, director of the Meteorological Center in Dehradun, the state's capital city.

The Indian Meteorological Department predicted recent rains would subside by Wednesday.

Flooding is common in Uttarakhand, with nearly 200 killed in February and thousands killed in 2013.

Source: Voice of America