The building collapsed on Sunday in eastern Mumbai, trapping residents beneath the debris, according to a statement from Mumbai Mayor Ritu Tawde. Rescue efforts followed as emergency teams searched the rubble for survivors.

The tragedy coincided with intense rainfall that inundated large parts of the city. The India Meteorological Department recorded more than 200 millimetres of rain within a 24-hour period and issued a red alert for Mumbai on Monday, warning that heavy rain and strong winds were expected to continue.

The severe weather prompted city authorities to declare a holiday for all schools and colleges as flooded roads and waterlogged streets disrupted normal life. Officials also urged residents to remain indoors where possible because of the risk posed by strong winds, uprooted trees and falling branches.

Mumbai, a metropolis of more than 20 million people, experiences heavy rainfall during the annual southwest monsoon, which is critical for India’s agriculture, water supplies and economic activity. While the rains are essential, they also frequently trigger flooding, infrastructure damage and transport disruptions in densely populated urban areas.

Scientists say climate change is altering weather patterns, contributing to more extreme weather events and higher temperatures across India. Authorities have also warned that this year’s El Niño weather phenomenon could affect seasonal rainfall patterns.

The latest downpours came after weeks of intense heat in Mumbai, during which authorities imposed restrictions on water use and reduced supplies to swimming pools and construction sites to conserve resources.

The city is also facing growing concerns over long-term pressure on water supplies as expanding data-centre infrastructure increases demand for water needed for cooling systems, adding to existing challenges in managing resources during periods of extreme weather.

Emergency services remained on alert as forecasters warned that adverse weather conditions were likely to persist, with authorities monitoring the impact of continued rainfall on transport, infrastructure and public safety.

In its report, titled “Strait of Hormuz Disruptions: Beyond Reopening — Lasting Impacts on Vulnerable Economies,” UNCTAD said maritime traffic through the strategic waterway remained stable during the first two months of 2026 before collapsing after the conflict involving the United States, Israel and Iran began on Feb. 28.

The agency said shipping activity started recovering after a ceasefire agreement between Washington and Tehran, which included the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, was announced in mid-June. Even expectations that the waterway would resume normal operations helped ease benchmark crude oil prices across Europe, North America, the Middle East and Russia, it added.

Despite the improvement in oil markets, UNCTAD said recovery across broader supply chains remained uneven. Freight costs for grain and oilseed shipments continued to remain significantly above pre-conflict levels, indicating that disruptions to global logistics would persist even after maritime traffic resumed.

The report said the interruption of shipping through one of the world’s most important corridors for oil, liquefied natural gas and fertilizer exports triggered a broader chain reaction throughout the global economy. Higher energy prices increased transportation costs, contributed to inflationary pressures, raised agricultural production expenses and ultimately pushed food prices higher, disproportionately affecting low-income populations.

UNCTAD identified least-developed countries and small island developing states as the most exposed to these shocks because many rely heavily on imports of both fuel and food. The agency said numerous countries face dual vulnerability as net importers of oil and cereal products, leaving them particularly sensitive to fluctuations in international commodity prices.

Among small island developing states, oil imports account for as much as one-quarter of gross domestic product in some economies, according to the report. For least-developed countries, cereal imports represent a significant financial burden, with Yemen, Kiribati and Lesotho recording the largest shares of gross domestic product devoted to net cereal imports.

The report said these economies possess limited capacity to absorb external shocks because of constrained public finances, high debt-servicing obligations, exchange-rate vulnerabilities, declining remittance flows and reduced international development assistance. Those factors collectively weaken governments’ ability to shield households from rising living costs.

UNCTAD also said the relationship between energy prices and inflation has strengthened since the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the agency, a one percent increase in energy prices now produces larger and longer-lasting effects on consumer inflation than before the pandemic, reflecting more persistent transmission through global supply chains.

The report noted that food-price inflation in developing economies has continued to rise even after the underlying shocks affecting energy and grain markets began to ease, a pattern observed again during the recent conflict involving Iran.

Highlighting the humanitarian implications, UNCTAD cited research involving 1.27 million preschool children across 44 developing countries that found a five percent increase in real food prices was associated with an 11 percent rise in the risk of child wasting among children younger than five years. The risk increased to 15 percent for infants under one year, 26 percent among poor children and 9 percent for children living in poor, landless rural households.

The agency said normalization of international trade would require time because shipping networks and supply chains generally recover more slowly than commodity prices. It also warned that global food production risks remain elevated amid forecasts of a strong El Niño weather pattern later this year.

UNCTAD called for stronger international financial support for vulnerable economies, including measures to strengthen resilience through diversified trade sources and policies tailored to countries facing severe fiscal and debt constraints.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres, quoted in the report, said the economic consequences of the disruption would continue to be felt for months, with developing countries bearing the greatest burden. He urged all parties to uphold the ceasefire agreement and continue efforts to preserve regional stability.

The Copernicus Climate Change Service said sea surface temperatures in April were the second-highest ever recorded for the month, with warming accelerating across parts of the Pacific Ocean as neutral conditions transition toward El Niño.

Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, said daily ocean temperatures in recent days had moved close to surpassing the previous records set in 2024.

“It’s a matter of days before we are back in record-breaking ocean SSTs again,” Burgess told AFP, referring to sea surface temperatures.

Copernicus said marine heatwaves reached unprecedented levels in waters between the tropical Pacific and the United States during April, reflecting broader warming trends tied to both natural climate variability and long-term greenhouse gas emissions.

Last month, the World Meteorological Organization said El Niño conditions could emerge between May and July. The climate phenomenon, linked to warming Pacific Ocean waters and shifting trade winds, alters global weather systems and raises the likelihood of drought, heavy rainfall and severe heat events.

Scientists say El Niño is unfolding against a backdrop of persistent global warming, with oceans absorbing roughly 90 percent of excess heat generated by human-driven emissions from fossil fuels.

The previous El Niño contributed to 2023 and 2024 becoming the second- and hottest years on record respectively, according to climate agencies. Some forecasters believe the developing event could rival the strength of the “super” El Niño recorded in the late 1990s.

Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at Berkeley Earth, said last week that a strong El Niño could significantly increase the chances of 2027 becoming the hottest year ever observed globally.

Burgess cautioned that forecasting the intensity of El Niño during the Northern Hemisphere spring remains difficult because of seasonal uncertainties in climate models. She said, however, that the event was already likely to have substantial global consequences.

“We’re likely to see 2027 exceed 2024 for the warmest year on record,” Burgess said, noting that El Niño’s strongest influence on global temperatures often emerges in the year after it peaks.In its monthly climate bulletin, Copernicus said April temperatures globally were 1.43 degrees Celsius above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average, making it the third-warmest April on record.

The agency also reported Arctic sea ice levels remained near historic lows during April, while Europe experienced contrasting weather conditions that could increase the risk of drought and wildfires during the coming summer.

Climate researchers say the persistence of marine heatwaves, shrinking ice cover and rising global temperatures underscores the intensifying impact of climate change, even before the full effects of El Niño materialize.