NEW DELHI, July 5: Fifteen people have been killed in monsoon storms in India, while the flood situation in the northeast worsened on Saturday, taking the number of people displaced to more than 860,000.

At least 11 people were killed on Friday by lightning strikes as heavy rains lashed Bihar.

In New Delhi, four people, including two women, were killed as a wall collapsed after heavy monsoon rains hit the city.

The monsoon, which usually arrives in New Delhi on June 29, was delayed by a week this year.

The rains finally hit with a vengeance on Saturday, leaving streets flooded and causing traffic chaos, but bringing temperatures down.

In the northeast, officials said the flood situation was critical.

Since June 27, at least 13 people have drowned or been buried by mudslides in the three northeastern states of Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya, officials said.

An Assam government statement said 18 of the 24 districts in the state had been hit by the floods affecting 852,402 people, besides damaging 28,758 hectares of farmland.

At least 10,000 people have also been displaced by floods in Tripura state.

Assam Revenue Minister Mithias Tudu said: “The flood situation is critical in many districts with road communication remaining snapped due to breaches caused by the surging floodwaters.

“People are facing tremendous hardships across the state due to the floods.”

About 400,000 people were displaced during the first wave of floods last month, but the waters later receded.

But since late June the main Brahmaputra river has again flooded, breaching mud embankments, washing away railway tracks and engulfing villages.

“We have opened hundreds of makeshift relief camps to shelter people affected by the floods,” said Tudu.

“We are providing food and medicines as far as possible to the inmates.”

Water-borne diseases have broken out in many places because of a lack of clean drinking water, with people suffering from dysentery, gastroenteritis, and jaundice.

“We have pressed medical teams and paramedics into service to deal with the situation,” Assam Health Minister Bhumidhar Barman told AFP.

“In some areas, our doctors have set up floating clinics aboard ... boats to treat people living in the middle of their marooned villages.”

In Bihar, a state relief department official said 200,000 people in 121 villages were affected by floods.

But officials said the heavy rains would help farmers in Bihar who were gearing up to sow the paddy crop.

“This year rains in June have proved good for farmers and a good crop should be expected,” relief department official Upendra Sharma said.

According to the meteorological department in New Delhi, monsoon rains have now covered the entire country.

Last year 17 of India’s 29 states experienced drought after a poor monsoon, which shaved one percentage point off India’s economic growth in the last fiscal year ended March. —AFP