Police urged millions of Bombay residents to stay at home as heavy rains brought more flooding to India's financial hub on Sunday and relief officials said the death toll in the region could reach 1,000.

Dead bodies and carcasses of animals were still strewn across parts of Bombay and its suburbs from last week's flooding, raising fears of disease, TV and officials said.

"I hope there is no epidemic," Maharashtra relief commissioner Krishna Vatsa said.

The monsoon rains in the region have been the heaviest for nearly a century, and on Sunday western India was drenched again.

"We are appealing to people not to travel unless it is absolutely necessary," Police Commissioner A.N. Roy told Reuters. "Already, the rains are going on and there is a forecast of further heavy rainfall."

Officials said fatalities in the western state of Maharashtra, including Bombay, were rising as more bodies were being dug out from villages flattened by landslides south of Bombay.

In Raigarh district, 150 km south of Bombay, about 200 are dead or missing. At least 899 confirmed deaths have been reported in the state, police said.

"The death toll in Raigarh is likely to go up by another 100 or so because more dead bodies are coming up. It (the total) may touch around 1,000, including about 400 deaths in Bombay," said Vatsa.

"It's raining and this will hamper the relief distribution and search operations."

PROTESTS

In Bombay alone, hundreds have died in the city of over 15 million since Tuesday due to landslides, drowning, electrocution in flooded streets and even by suffocating in their cars as they waited out the rains for many hours.

There have been angry protests in several areas of the city where thousands have been without electricity and drinking water supplies since flooding started last Tuesday.

"The infrastructure in the city has collapsed but people have a very short memory. We seem to forget and forgive and don't come up with a constructive plan," said Josy John, a Bombay resident.

"Already roads are in a bad shape and the situation is going to worsen," said John, who spent a couple of days in his office following traffic disruptions due to the floods.

Long-distance trains have been canceled for a week, leaving thousands stranded at railway stations, and flights to and from Bombay airport, India's busiest, have been canceled or delayed.

"Airlines have a huge backlog of pending flights and waiting passengers," Indian Airlines spokesman M. Swaminathan said.

"There is tremendous pressure on airlines."

On Saturday, an Air India Boeing 747 aircraft skidded off the runway in Bombay while landing from the southern technology hub of Bangalore in heavy rain, blocking operations at the airport.

Trains services in the region have also been severely disrupted. "There has been extensive damage to tracks," Sunil Jain, a railway spokesman, said.

Monsoon flooding kills hundreds every year in India and covers huge swathes of land in the densely-populated nation, home to hundreds of rivers.

PHOTO CAPTION

Indian slum-dwellers hunt for valuables in debris washed away by floods in Bombay July 30, 2005. (Reuters(