Thousands of pilgrims and tourists were sheltering in forests Friday awaiting rescue, almost a week after flash floods and landslides hit northern India, wiping out villages and leaving at least 150 dead, officials said.

Helicopters and thousands of soldiers have been deployed to rescue people stranded at remote pilgrimage sites after devastating torrential monsoon rains hit the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand last weekend.

An apartment block collapsed in Mumbai's outskirts Friday, killing at least 10 people in the latest deadly incident to fuel concerns about the quality of construction in the booming Indian city.

Rescue workers were using hand-held wire cutters and excavators to search through the rubble for survivors after the building on Mumbai's outskirts collapsed while many of its residents were sleeping, officials said.

India's military battled Thursday to reach villages and towns cut off by flash floods and landslides in the country's north as officials warned at least 1,000 people may have been killed.

Helicopters and close to 10,000 soldiers have been deployed to rescue tourists and pilgrims stranded after floods caused by torrential monsoon rains hit the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand at the weekend.

Military helicopters dropped emergency supplies Wednesday to thousands of tourists and pilgrims stranded by flash floods that tore through towns and temples in northern India, killing at least 138 people, officials said.

Thousands of people have already been evacuated after floods and landslides caused by early monsoon rains wrought devastation through the region in the Himalayan foothills, they said.

Torrential rains have washed away hundreds of homes and roads, leaving at least 64 people dead and thousands stranded, after the annual monsoon hit northern India earlier than expected, officials said Tuesday.

The Indian Air Force scrambled a dozen helicopters to reinforce a military-backed rescue mission in the worst-hit state of Uttarakhand, a spokesman said.

Heavy rains lashed parts of north India Monday, resulting in the deaths of at least 26 people, as the annual monsoon covered the country nearly two weeks ahead of schedule, officials said.

Surprise showers struck the capital New Delhi over the weekend, flooding the arrival halls in the international and domestic airports and leading to traffic jams in some parts of the city.

An overcrowded ferry which was packed with dozens of people and livestock capsized Friday in the Indian state of West Bengal, killing at least two and leaving 25 others missing, officials said.

"At least two people died and 25 are missing after a ferry capsized in the Ganges," Sabitri Mitra, a government minister who is overseeing the rescue operation told Agence France Presse.

Maoist guerrillas opened fire on a passenger train in the eastern Indian state of Bihar on Thursday, killing one police officer and two passengers, police said.

Around 100 guerrillas forced the train to stop as it was traveling from the town of Dhanbad to the state capital of Patna and then opened fire, senior police officer Amitabh Das told Agence France Presse.

Pakistan on Tuesday accused Indian jets of briefly violating its airspace, days after India said one of its soldiers had been killed by Pakistani troops.

The Pakistan Air Force said it scrambled two fighter jets after two "high-speed" Indian planes crossed the border over its eastern province of Punjab at about 10:40 am (0540 GMT).

An apartment block collapsed in central Mumbai on Monday evening, killing at least one person with more feared trapped inside, police said, on the second day of heavy monsoon rains in the city.

"We have information that one person is dead. Rescue operations are on, but they are difficult due to the heavy rain," a police inspector in the Mahim neighborhood, where the collapse happened, told Agence France Presse.