Flash floods in Kerala have killed 37 people and displaced around 36,000, Indian officials said Saturday, after heavy monsoons led to landslides and overflowing reservoirs across the southern state.

Kerala, famed for its pristine palm-lined beaches and tea plantations, is battered by the monsoon every year but the rains have been particularly severe this season.

Those forced from their homes "have moved to 350 relief camps across the state", an official at the Kerala State Disaster Management control room told AFP.

The army has been roped in for rescue efforts in Kerala after two days of heavy rain drove authorities to open the shutters of 27 reservoirs to drain out the excess water.

One of the five shutters of a large reservoir in the mountainous Idukki district was opened for the first time in 26 years.

"Our state is in the midst of an unprecedented flood havoc," Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan wrote in a statement posted on Twitter.

"The calamity has caused immeasurable misery and devastation. Many lives were lost. Hundreds of homes were totally destroyed," he added, lauding the efforts of rescue teams working in the state from across India.

The US embassy Thursday advised its citizens to avoid the areas affected and monitor local media for weather updates.

More than a million foreign tourists visited Kerala last year, according to official data.

The government of Kerala, which has a population of 33 million people, has imposed a ban on the movement of lorries and tourist vehicles in Idukki.

Two Germans indicted in France over flooded youth campground
Marseille (AFP) Aug 11, 2018 –

Two Germans have been charged for causing unintentional injury and endangering the lives of others after they brought a group of teenagers to an unauthorised campsite in southern France, where a man was swept away by floods, French prosecutors said on Saturday.

The men, who were not named, were the president and vice-president of a charitable foundation that brought had children from Leverkusen in Germany's industrial Rhineland region to the village of Saint-Julien-de-Peyrolas, said Eric Maurel, the public prosecutor for the region.

On Thursday, 119 children were evacuated from the site, about 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of Avignon in the Gard region, after the Ardeche river burst its banks, swamping the campground in a fast-flowing, muddy torrent.

Nine children suffered minor injuries.

A German man, who was with the group, was swept away by the floodwaters in his caravan or travel trailer, which was later found "empty and in pieces" near the river.

On Saturday, rescue workers continued to search for the man, who was named by police as Rudolf Rogowski, aged 66.

The emergency services described scenes of panic on Thursday as waist-high water surged through the campground, with children found "dangling from the trees".

Maurel said local authorities had warned the German group earlier this week that the site was at risk of flooding after the heatwave that had left France parched ended with dramatic storms.

The youngsters were evacuated to a community hall where they spent the night, along with other holidaymakers.