Bangalore, Sep 25 - Bangaloreans are hoping the skies will not open up over the next three days and spoil the Dussehra and Durga puja festivities in the city which has been lashed by heavy rains in the last two days.

Weather officials are not holding out any hope as they predict heavy showers to continue till the end of September.

After nearly a week of overcast skies and record downpour Wednesday and Thursday, it was sunny Friday afternoon.

On Thursday, the city recorded 42.7 mm rainfall. The previous day it was 66.8 mm rainfall, as per data available with meteorological department.

'The next few days will see over 70 mm of rainfall in Bangalore and other parts of Karnataka,' director of meteorological department A. Muthuchami told IANS Friday.

'The southwest monsoon will continue till the end of September after which the northeast monsoon will take over. So immediate respite from the showers is unlikely,' he added.

The normal rainfall in Bangalore in September is 200 mm.

'If it continues to rain, celebrations will surely be affected, as revellers would find it hard to hop puja pandals with roads waterlogged in Bangalore,' said Ramol Mukherjee at a puja pandal set up by the Bengalee Association of Bangalore, one of the oldest groups organising Durga Puja in the city.

Around 20 different groups, mostly consisting of Bengali speaking people of Bangalore, organise Durga puja celebrations.

Two days of continuous heavy rains have brought misery to people in low lying areas of the city with several houses flooded. One house built on the banks of a water drain in Nagarbhavi area, about 20 km from the city centre, collapsed late Wednesday.