Rescue crews in India used boats and helicopters on Saturday to reach areas hammered by days of monsoon rains — coming at nearly an inch an hour at one weather station — that submerged homes and triggered landslides in the latest battle against extreme weather around the world. At least 125 people were killed, Indian officials said.

Emergency teams confronted thick sludge and debris in attempts to evacuate people across hard-hit Maharashtra state, which includes Mumbai. Thousands of trucks were stuck on the partly submerged highway between Mumbai and the technology hub of Bangalore. Major rivers were still in danger of rising further, the Reuters news agency reported.

The scenes in India echoed disasters around the world caused by deadly floods in recent weeks in China’s central Henan province and in Germany and Belgium.

Climate scientists say that these ravaging global floods should serve as a wake-up call for leaders to take action on climate change. While monsoon rains are a regular occurrence in India, a warmer atmosphere retains more moisture, which causes heavy rainfall during storms, some experts note.