Troops backed by naval craft and heavy-lift air force helicopters were evacuating people from flooded homes in Surat in the western state of Gujarat as diamond merchants perched on rooftops for protection.

Nationwide, the flood-related death toll rose by 197 in the past eight days to 574 since the monsoons hit the country in mid-May.

Some 543,000 people have been hit by floods in the inundated southern Andhra Pradesh state and another 105,000 people displaced in neighbouring Maharashtra, officials said.

Surat Police Commissioner Sudhir Sinha painted a horrific picture of the city, which accounts for around 70 percent of India's polished diamond exports.

"Due to the release of 900,000 cusecs (cubic inch per second) of water from the Ukai dam into Tapti river, 80 percent of Surat is under water and the situation is likely to worsen with the high tide (in the Arabian Sea)," Sinha told reporters.

"Most of Surat's 3.5 million population is badly affected," Sinha said. He put the number of people killed at six in the past four days.

A total of 190,000 people have so far shifted from Surat, officials said, adding that communications links were also down.

"Casualties will rise if the water-sheet enters the first floor of houses in the vicinity of Tapti river. Right now people are on rooftops," he said.

Sinha reported growing shortages of emergency supplies in the once-prosperous city. The diamond-cutting industry was in disarray.

"All diamond and textile units have been closed for the last three days and diamond cutters are stranded on the rooftops of their houses," Dhiru Gajera, provincial legislator from Surat, said in Gujarat's main city of Ahmedabad.

Nanubhai Vasani, ex-chief of the Gujarat Diamond Association, estimated the industry was daily losing 1.3 billion rupees (29 million dollars).

"And if the floods continue, then Surat will become the grave of India's diamond industry," he said.

India's state-run and private petroleum firms also reported disruptions in production in Gujarat's bountiful gasfields due to the havoc.

Soldiers in powerboats roared across waterways which were once lush boulevards, plucking people from trees, submerged houses and even the top of vehicles, witnesses said. Helicopters dropped food or winched up those in dire straits.

"Our operations will continue until we save every life we can and feed ever child we can," a helicopter pilot told reporters at an airbase in Gujarat after carrying out dozens of sorties Wednesday.

The military was also out in Andhra Pradesh, where 900,000 acres (364,217 hectares) of crops and 71,000 houses are under floodwater in six districts, an official said.

In Maharashtra state, which adjoins Gujarat, thousands of homeless in 15 of its 35 districts are living off food dropped by the air force.

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