11 July 2004	Sunday	22 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

NEW DELHI/DHAKA, July 10: Floods following a month of incessant heavy rains have engulfed vast areas in India and Bangladesh, killing over one hundred people _ 90 of them in India _ and leaving two million marooned.

In Bihar, 14 people drowned on Friday when they tried to leave their submerged homes in the worst-hit district of Sitamarhi.

An official said the accident occurred when two row boats carrying people capsized, adding the bodies of the victims could not be found in the monsoon-swollen rivers racing through the district.

The accident took to 25 the number of people killed so far in flood-related accidents in Bihar, where army soldiers and air force helicopters have joined rescue and relief operations.

In Assam, five more people died when two boats carrying families sank in the central Kamrup district on Friday.

But in the same area, army helicopters swooped down and rescued some 350 children trapped when their school was hit by a flash flood.

"The children were forced to take shelter on the rooftop before two MI-17 helicopters airlifted them to safety," a local official said.

India last year recorded more than 1,000 deaths from floods, which are triggered annually by monsoon rains and melting snows from the Himalayas.

BANGLADESH: Three people died on Saturday when mudslides caused by rain buried their home in Chittagong. Torrents carried away two children into a river near Cox's Bazar, 160kms from Chittagong.

Three more people were injured in another mudslide in Rangamati hill town, where authorities warned residents to vacate their homes on hillsides.

Most of Bangladesh sits astride the deltas of a series of large rivers flowing from the Himalayas and about a third of the country floods every year during the monsoon. Many people are landless and are forced to live and farm on flood-prone land.

Floods kill hundreds and make thousands homeless every year.

Weather officials said the floods might spread to central areas, including Dhaka, in the next few days as the monsoon had brought heavier than usual downpours.

"We are bracing for major floods across the country. The monsoon remains very active, with incessant rain falling every day since last month," said one meteorology official.

Most rivers including the Jamuna, Brahmaputra, Meghna and Padma were above danger levels. Officials said some had burst their banks while others were about to do so.

Water gushing down from nearby hills flooded the port city of Chittagong, home to four million, on Saturday for the second time in three days.

Chittagong port authorities asked ships not to enter a flooded channel in the Bay of Bengal. They said ships could be in danger because of turbulence in the Karnaphuli river channel.

Water levels in Kaptai Lake, in Chittagong Hill Tracts, also rose "dangerously", threatening a 230-megawatt hydroelectric plant.

FOOD SHORTAGE: Weather and disaster management officials said the fast-rising flood waters had already swamped hundreds of villages in 15 of Bangladesh's 64 districts, mostly in the north and northeast.

The deluge washed away hundreds of houses, leaving thousands of families homeless. Crops were under water in all the affected districts but no estimate of losses was immediately available.

Schools were closed indefinitely in seriously affected northeastern Sylhet and northern Nilphamari districts.

Many families have taken shelter on boats, highways, schools and government buildings. They faced shortages of food and drinking water as relief agencies could not reach victims in remote areas.

In Sylhet, where six people have died in the floods in the last two days, stranded people were seen begging for food from reporters.

Imtiaz Ali, stranded with his family in a half-submerged house in Sylhet, said: "We have been without food for three days. No one has come to our rescue."

Officials said heavy rain and strong currents prevented them sending relief to remote areas.

"The situation is really bad with half of the district already flooded," said a Sylhet official, by telephone. -Reuters/AFP