Death toll mounts as mudslides, floods hit Indian state

ASSAM • Massive flooding and mudslides in India's north-eastern state of Assam killed at least 17 people over the weekend, bringing the death toll to 62 since the region's rainy season began about a month ago, officials said yesterday.

Thirty-two of Assam's 35 districts were inundated after the Brahmaputra River overflowed, displacing more than three million residents, according to the state's disaster management authority.

The Indian army has been dispatched for rescue efforts and the air force is on standby, the Associated Press cited the authority as saying.

The Brahmaputra flows from China's Tibet through India and into Bangladesh on a nearly 800km journey through Assam.

Bangladesh, too, has been badly hit by the monsoon floods - the worst in the country's recent history, according to its officials.

At least 25 people were killed by lightning or landslides over the weekend while millions were left marooned or homeless in the low-lying north-eastern parts of the country.

Many of Bangladesh's rivers have risen to dangerous levels and the run-off from heavy rain from across Indian mountains had exacerbated the situation, said Mr Arifuzzaman Bhuiyan, head of the state-run Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre.

Mr Syed Rafiqul Haque, a former lawmaker and ruling party politician in Sunamganj district, said the country was facing a humanitarian crisis.

"Almost the entire Sylhet-Sunamganj belt is under water and millions of people are stranded," he said, adding that victims have no food, drinking water and communication networks were down.

Bangladesh and India have experienced increasing extreme weather in recent years, causing large-scale damage.

REUTERS