Shimla, July 28 - Heavy rains lashed parts of Himachal Pradesh as south-west monsoon brought cheer to the people in the hill state, a weather official here said.

'Most areas of the hill state received heavy rain throughout the day,' Meteorological Office director Manmohan Singh told IANS.

He said the temperature plummeted sharply following the rains.

Amb in Una district and Pachhad in Sirmaur district received the highest 120 mm of rain each, followed by Ghamroor in Bilaspur district (101 mm), Palampur (109 mm) and Dharamsala (43 mm) in Kangra district, Jhandutta in Hamirpur district 93 mm, Jogindernagar in Mandi district (31 mm) and Shimla (7 mm).