ASSAM (India) - ONE person died and 400,000 have been displaced in a north-eastern Indian state where a rain-swollen river burst its banks four days ago swamping hundreds of villages, an official said on Sunday.

'One tribal villager drowned and thousands have been rendered homeless in the flash floods triggered by heavy monsoon rain,' Assam's state minister for rehabilitation, Mr Bhumidar Barman, told AFP.

The official said that around 50,000 more people were still marooned in some of the worst-hit districts, adding paramilitary forces would soon bring them to safety.

Those who had already been rescued have been housed in schools and hundreds of other temporary shelters.

'We are providing food and medical support to the flood-hit people,' Mr Barman said.

Every year floods in Assam wash away villages submerging paddy fields, drowning people and livestock.

In 2004, more than 200 people were killed in floods in Assam. -- AFP