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PATNA, July 21: Indian army troops were called out in Assam as the mighty Brahmaputra river burst its banks, sending floodwaters surging into the main city of Guwahati.
"Several areas of the city have come under floods and we have issued an alert, with soldiers called out to evacuate people from vulnerable areas," Guwahati's district magistrate said.
A Central Water Commission bulletin said the river had crossed the danger level and was still rising. "We are really worried and the entire city might come under water if the situation does not improve fast," the magistrate said.
Witnesses said several city streets had been flooded with people fleeing their homes for safety. Water also entered Machkhowa and Fancy Bazaar, the main business centres of the city, and army personnel were putting barricades to stop the water.
"We have been living in this locality for 50 years and never have we seen these kind of floods. We are now taking shelter in a relief camp opened by the authorities," said businessman Karuna Deka.
Traffic in parts of Guwahati had come to a halt with people rowing rafts and using boats to shift their belongings to safety. Officials said at least 26 of the 27 districts in Assam were flooded with road links snapped, while three people died overnight in the state's Dhemaji district.
Nearly nine million of Assam's 26 million people are either homeless or marooned, a government official said in the latest estimate of the number of people affected by floods this year.
Hundreds of animals, including rhinoceroses and wild elephants in three of Assam's wildlife sanctuaries, have also perished in the floods that began early this month, a forest official said.
15 DROWN: At least 15 farm workers drowned on Wednesday when their boat was sucked into a whirlpool as floods worsened across eastern and northeastern India and rising waters entered a major city.
The vessel went down in the Gandak river in Bihar state's inundated West Champaran district. It was carrying around 40 people when it sank but it was believed some swam to safety.
The victims were crossing the fast-flowing river to work on a farm when the boat sank. The latest deaths have pushed the flood toll in India since the monsoon rains began mid-June to at least 255.
OFFICES RANSACKED: At least 11 million people have been displaced by the floodwaters. In Bihar, villagers ransacked government offices, accusing authorities of not supplying enough aid to cope with the deadly floods.
The district administrator's office in Madhubani town bore the brunt of public anger while there was also looting and violence in the flood-hit districts of Muzaffarpur, Samastipur, Kishanganj and Purnia.
"We're trapped in our college hostel and are falling ill due to the filthy conditions. Even snakes and scorpions have been pushed into rooms by the floods," said B. Mishra, a student at a medical college in Bihar's worst-hit Darbhanga district.
BANGLADESH: Fresh rains lashed Bangladesh, triggering flooding in more districts of the capital and the northern parts of the country. Water levels rose further in Dhaka where at least 1.5 million people have been stranded in submerged low-lying areas. Dhaka has a population of 10 million.
The floods in Bangladesh have left 400,000 people homeless, a government official said. Nine more deaths were reported on Wednesday, mostly due to snakebites and drowning, as the low-lying country's misery continued into its third week.
"It is the biggest flood after 1988, which submerged two-thirds of the country and killed 3,500 people," a disaster management official said. -AFP/Reuters
