Assam floods leave millions homeless

Indian army soldiers rescue villagers using a metal boat in the village of Dhamtola, Nalbari District, some 70km north-west of Guwahati yesterday. The flood death toll in northeast India has risen to 96 as six more people died overnight. PHOTO: AFP

The villagers, including many women and children, were trying to escape to higher ground in the state of Assam on Saturday night when their boat capsized. There were no survivors, a police official said

All rivers in tea and oil-rich Assam, including the main Brahmaputra, are overflowing after incessant rains in the past week.

"More than two million people have become homeless because of floods," Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi told Reuters.

Military helicopters and soldiers in motor boats were trying to rescue thousands of people marooned across the state, he said.

Floods in Assam caused by heavy rains that lash the state for about seven months from April to October bring death and destruction each year.

A breach in a dam in Tsatitsu lake in the neighbouring nation of Bhutan had swollen the floods in Assam, a flood control official said.

Flood waters have inundated highways and railway tracks and washed away several bridges in western Assam, said SR Islam, a senior flood control official.

AFP adds: The death toll from floods swamping large portions of northeastern India rose to 96 yesterday as six more people died overnight, officials said.

"Two paramilitary soldiers were drowned in Arunachal Pradesh and four civilians died in two separate incidents of boats capsizing in Assam," a police spokesman said.

Due to incessant rains, the mighty Brahmaputra river continued to cut a swathe through Assam and Arunachal Pradesh displacing up to 2.6 million people.

The situation deteriorated after a dam burst was reported in neighbouring Bhutan.