The capital Delhi was lashed by a bout of intense rain on Wednesday evening, with a total 147 mm (5.8 inches) recorded in eastern parts of the city and its suburbs by the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

At least five people died, according to local media.

Three people have died and parts of two bridges were washed away due to a cloudburst in Uttarakhand state, officials said, adding that bad weather in the hilly terrain was hampering communications. Earlier local media said four people were killed.

Three hundred pilgrims were stranded in different locations on the Kedarnath route - a trek to a Hindu pilgrimage site - and a patch of the national highway was washed out, district official Saurabh Gaharwar told Reuters by phone.

Uttarakhand, which is prone to flash floods and landslides, was ravaged by record rain in 2013, and nearly 6,000 of tens of thousands of Hindu devotees on pilgrimages went missing.

In neighbouring Himachal Pradesh state, two people died and nearly 50 people were missing after torrential rain led to floods, authorities said.

Visuals shared by the state chief minister showed rescue workers crossing streams by rope, as muddy water gushed through rocks between hills.

"The situation is quite bad there and we are trying to pull out people, dead bodies (if any) from the debris," Jyoti Rana, a district official in the capital Shimla, told Reuters.

Torrential rains in the mountains of India and neighbouring Pakistan and Nepal over the past few years have been attributed to climate change by some experts.

Earlier this week, landslides swept through tea estates and villages in southern India's Kerala , killing at least 178 people after unexpectedly heavy rain.

In Delhi, water was seen leaking from the newly-constructed parliament building, according to a post on X by opposition leader Akhilesh Yadav.

Delhi has experienced a series of extreme weather events in the past few months, from sizzling temperatures to floods and heavy rainfall that caused a roof collapse at the city's airport.