Rescuers carry bodies after mudslide in northern India

Rescue workers struggled to retrieve bodies of people killed during flooding and mudslides in India. Fresh rain and falling boulders hampered the rescuers who have so far pulled out 26 bodies from the debris of a mudslide that wiped out a railroad construction site in India's northeast.

More than 250 soldiers, rescuers and police using bulldozers and other equipment were involved in the operation in Noney, a town near Imphal, the capital of Manipur state. Scientists say climate change is a factor behind the erratic, early rains that triggered unprecedented floods.

Monsoon rains in South Asia typically begin in June, but torrential rain lashed northeastern India and Bangladesh as early as March this year.