More rain pounds flood-hit north-east India
Purchase this article for republication
Buy SPH photosGUWAHATI, India (AFP) - Indian Air Force helicopters flying missions in between heavy rainstorms dropped supplies to flood victims in north-east India on Tuesday as the number of displaced rose to 1.7 million.
Nineteen of 27 districts in the state of Assam have been hit by floods and 13 people have been killed over the past week, according to the latest figures from the local disaster management authority.
The remote and impoverished state, which was rocked by ethnic violence last month, has been flooded three times this year by the mighty Brahmaputra River, which often breaks its banks during the monsoon season.
Thousands of people in Majuli, a large river island about 350km from Assam's main city of Guwahati, have fled to higher ground or are crowded onto embankments.
