CHENNAI (Reuters) - Heavy rains that have killed at least 25 people in southern India and Sri Lanka are likely to ease in the next few days, weather officials said on Thursday.

       A bulletin of the Indian Meteorological Department forecast light to moderate rainfall in most affected areas, with occasional flooding of roads and low-lying areas in some places.

       "The worst is over and occasional rains will happen," said Pradeep John, an amateur forecaster who is widely followed in Tamil Nadu, India's worst-affected Indian state.

       "Today rains will be on and off, with large breaks and nothing alarming."

       The low pressure depression that brought the rain has killed 20 people in the neighbouring island nation of Sri Lanka, most of whom drowned, while landslides injured five, officials said on Wednesday.

       Five people have died in Tamil Nadu, whose capital of Chennai is India's automobile manufacturing centre.

       India's northeast monsoon usually runs from October to December, bringing rain to its southern region.

       (Reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan in Chennai; Writing by Alasdair Pal; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)