• Nine die of electrocution, two drown in heavy flooding.
• Flights, trains cancelled as Kolkata transport paralysed.
• Schools closed; IMD warns of more rain in coming days.

At least 12 people died as heavy rain lashed the eastern Indian city of Kolkata and surrounding areas ahead of a major festival, flooding streets, disrupting transport and leaving residents stranded for hours, officials said on Wednesday.

Most of the rain, as much as 251.6 mm(9.9 inches) in 24 hours, fell during the early hours of Tuesday and was the heaviest witnessed in the city since 1988, said HR Biswas, the regional head of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) in Kolkata.

Police said nine people died in Kolkata, with most of the deaths due to electrocution. Two people drowned, they added.

The rains brought the state capital to a standstill, seriously hampering preparations for the upcoming Durga Puja — the biggest annual festival of Hindus in West Bengal state.

Many pandals, temporary structures built with bamboo and other materials for the festival, and clay idols of the deities also suffered damage across the city.

Roads were submerged under waist-deep water in some areas, stranding vehicles and forcing commuters to wade through flooded streets.

Road, train, and air traffic were severely disrupted, with several flights and trains cancelled or delayed. Power outages affected multiple areas for hours, compounding residents’ difficulties.

“I got stranded in my hotel as my flight got cancelled and the roads were all waterlogged,” said Ranjan Panda, a water and climate expert.

Authorities said they have deployed water pumps to clear streets and railway tracks, with relief measures, including food distribution and emergency services, underway.

The IMD predicted more rain in the state and eastern India over the next few days due to the formation of a low-pressure area over the Bay of Bengal.

The state government declared schools and other educational institutions closed on Wednesday and Thursday before the holidays for the festival to take effect from Friday.

Officials said conditions will normalise by Wednesday evening while urging residents to remain cautious as water levels gradually recede in low-lying areas.

“This should not have happened after four hours of rain. West Bengal is not in a good condition,” Sandip Ghosh, a local resident in Kolkata, told Indian news agency ANI, in which Reuters has a minority stake.

HUALIEN: Residents in an eastern Taiwan town where flooding from a strong typhoon killed 14 people took to shelters on Wednesday, fearing further disaster, as Premier Cho Jung-tai called for an inquiry into what went wrong with evacuation orders.

Sub-tropical Taiwan, frequently hit by typhoons, normally has a well-oiled disaster mechanism that averts mass casualties by moving people out of potential danger zones quickly.

But many residents in Guangfu, an inundated town in the beauty spot of Hualien thronged by tourists, said there was insufficient warning when the lake overflowed during Tuesday’s torrential rains brought by Super Typhoon Ragasa.

Cho said the immediate priority was to find the 129 still missing — a number that climbed to 152 after he spoke — but questions remained.

“For the 14 who have tragically passed away, we must investigate why evacuation orders were not carried out in the designated areas,” he told reporters in Guangfu.

“This is not about assigning blame, but about uncovering the truth.”

The barrier lake, formed by landslides triggered by earlier heavy rain in the island’s sparsely populated east, burst its banks to send a wall of water into Guangfu.

As heavy rain continued on and off in Hualien, police cars sounded sirens for a new flood warning in Guangfu on Wednesday, sending people scrambling for safer areas as residents and rescuers shouted, “The flood waters are coming, run fast.”

“We will not return until the overflow is finished or the risk of it bursting is reduced. It’s too dangerous,” said a woman who gave her family name as Tsai from a packed emergency shelter in an elementary school.

Deputy disaster command centre chief Huang Chao-chin said with rainfall easing and much of the water from the lake already released, he did not expect a repeat of Tuesday’s mass flooding.

Lamen Panay, a Hualien councillor, said government evacuation requests before the flood had not been mandatory.

Referring to guidance for people to head to higher floors, she said, “What we were facing wasn’t something ‘vertical evacuation’ could resolve.”

Taiwan has been lashed since Monday by the outer rim of Typhoon Ragasa, which was downgraded from a super typhoon and is now hitting China’s southern coast and the Asian financial hub of Hong Kong.

‘Like tsunami’

The water hit like a “tsunami”, said Guangfu postman Hsieh Chien-tung, who was able to flee to the second floor of the post office just in time. Later, he got home to find his car had been swept into the living-room.

Fire officials said all the dead and missing were in Guangfu, where the waters destroyed a major road bridge across a river.

Regions across Taiwan have dispatched rescue teams to Hualien, with the military sending 340 troops to help.

In Guangfu, soldiers operating from an armoured personnel carrier to keep clear of thick mud in the streets went door-to-door handing out water and instant noodles. Wrecked cars and scooters were littered around.

About 5,200 people, or 60% of the population, sought shelter on the higher floors of their own homes while most of the rest left to stay with families, government data showed.

The government said the overflow of the barrier lake released about 60 million tonnes of an estimated 91 million tonnes of water, enough to fill about 36,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office offered condolences, in a rare sign of goodwill from Beijing, which has a deep dislike of Taipei’s government.

China views Taiwan as its own territory, despite the strong objections of the island’s democratically-elected government.

Besides the wilderness beauty that makes it one of Taiwan’s top tourist draws, Hualien is also home to many members of the island’s indigenous groups, including the Amis.

The typhoon brought about 70cm (28 inches) of rain to Taiwan’s east, though the populous west coast, home to the crucial semiconductor industry, was not affected.

In 2009, Typhoon Morakot brought destruction to Taiwan’s south, killing about 700 and causing damage of up to $3 billion.

The Jerusalem Post has published an opinion piece by Israeli researcher Yoel Guzansky analysing the defence pact between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, describing it as a declaration with more symbolic than operational weight.

The op-ed, titled ‘A complex reality: Saudi-Pakistani alliance is not a hostile pact against Israel’, argues that while the agreement was widely perceived as a “Muslim version of Nato’s Article 5”, it largely builds on decades of existing ties between the two countries rather than marking a new strategic breakthrough, The News reported

“The defence pact signed last week between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan rightly made headlines”, Guzansky wrote. “Its central clause — stipulating that any attack on one will be considered an attack on both — was widely perceived as dramatic, almost a Muslim version of Nato’s Article 5. Yet behind the declarative language lies a far more complex reality”.

According to the article, Pakistan has had a longstanding military presence in Saudi Arabia, with “between 1,500 and 2,000 Pakistani soldiers… stationed in the kingdom in training, advisory, and security roles”. Guzansky noted that Pakistani troops have been deployed at times of crisis since the 1960s, making the current agreement “part of a long continuum of cooperation rather than a genuine turning point”.

One of the most sensitive aspects, he argued, lies in the nuclear question. “Rumours of a Pakistani ‘nuclear umbrella’ for Saudi Arabia have circulated for years”, Guzansky observed, adding that Riyadh’s financial support for Islamabad’s uranium enrichment programme has fueled such speculation. However, he stressed that “the agreement as published makes no reference to nuclear weapons”, and Pakistan maintains that its arsenal is intended only as deterrence against India.

Guzansky said the timing of the pact reflects Saudi anxieties amid heightened regional tensions, particularly after “Israel’s rare strike in Qatar, a close American ally”, and ongoing clashes between Israel and Iran. 

“In an environment of perpetual regional warfare, Riyadh seeks to project that it is not isolated: behind it stands a large, powerful, and nuclear-armed Muslim ally”, he wrote.

But he cautioned that the pact should not be mistaken for an unconditional guarantee. “Pakistan has previously drawn redlines vis-a-vis Riyadh — for example, its refusal in 2015 to join the Saudi-led war in Yemen”. 

Similarly, he said that Saudi Arabia is unlikely to intervene militarily in a potential Pakistan-India conflict. “Above all, this is a political declaration: a signal to adversaries, reassurance for domestic audiences, and a reminder to Washington that the Gulf is exploring alternative security options”.

The op-ed stressed that the alliance is underpinned not only by defence but also by “oil credits, financial aid, millions of Pakistani workers in the kingdom, and the binding framework of the Hajj”. Guzansky argued that the new pact, by making relations more public, “magnifies” rather than eliminates ambiguity.

For Israel, he advised caution. “Israel should avoid misinterpreting the pact as a hostile alignment aimed directly at it”, he wrote. Instead, Tel Aviv should “quietly expand its strategic dialogue with Riyadh” while projecting reassurance.

“Ultimately, the Saudi-Pakistani defence pact is more about signalling – to Iran, to domestic audiences, and to Washington — than about binding operational commitments”, Guzansky concluded. “Israel, for its part, should recognise that the Gulf’s strategic map is shifting and ensure that it is perceived not as part of the problem but as a responsible partner in managing regional security”.