Torrential rainfall paralyses Mumbai; streets, rail tracks flooded (PICS)

The first monsoon rains hit Maharashtra and Mumbai with full fury on Wednesday, disrupting local trains and road traffic, and flooding low-lying areas in the country's commercial capital, officials said here.According to IMD Mumbai, the city notched record rain for a day in June -- 280.2 mm in the suburbs and 123 mm in the city -- in the past 24 hours, with the maximum downpour during the day since 8 a.m. In the early hours, Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad were clobbered with heavy rain, inundating several low-lying areas, barely a fortnight after the city survived the Cyclone Tauktae devastation. The IMD has forecast heavy to very heavy rain accompanied by thunderstorms till June 13 in these four coastal districts, besides rain in several other regions of the state.The city police appealed to Mumbaikars not to step out of their homes unnecessarily and cautioned them against travelling to some of the inundated areas. Mumbai and its suburbs experienced thunderstorms along with moderate to intense spells of rainfall during the day, it added