113 killed in India as monsoon season continues

People using a makeshift raft in a flooded neighbourhood of Patna in the eastern state of Bihar yesterday. Heavy rain has killed at least 113 people in India's Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states over the past three days, officials said yesterday as flood
PHOTO: REUTERS

People using a makeshift raft in a flooded neighbourhood of Patna in the eastern state of Bihar yesterday. Heavy rain has killed at least 113 people in India's Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states over the past three days, officials said yesterday as floodwaters swamped a major city, inundated hospital wards and forced the evacuation of inmates from a jail. India's monsoon season that begins in June usually starts to retreat by early September, but heavy rain has continued across parts of the country this year, triggering floods. An official said that at least 93 people had died in the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh since last Friday after its eastern areas were lashed by intense monsoon showers. Rising water levels forced the authorities to shift 900 inmates from a prison in eastern Ballia district, police officer Santosh Verma said. In neighbouring Bihar, an impoverished agrarian region that was hit by floods earlier this year, the death toll from the latest bout of rain reached 20 yesterday, a state government official said.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on October 01, 2019, with the headline 113 killed in India as monsoon season continues. Subscribe