Kolkata: Heavy overnight rainfall that continued till Tuesday morning brought Kolkata to a grinding halt, with families waking up to knee-deep water, vehicles stranded and pedestrians struggling to wade through flooded streets.

At least 10 people were killed, nine of them due to electrocution, as torrential overnight rain -- the heaviest in nearly four decades -- battered the metropolis and adjoining districts, crippling transport and forcing the state government to shut schools and advance Durga Puja holidays.

The downpour -- 251.4 mm in less than 24 hours -- was the highest since 1986 and the sixth-highest single-day rainfall in the last 137 years, only behind the record 369.6 mm in 1978, 253 mm in 1888, and 259.5 in 1986.

It turned arterial roads into rivers, snapping metro and train

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