DHAKA, July 25: Workers and volunteers frantically stacked sandbags to protect the capital from rising water as Bangladesh's death toll from this year's monsoon rains reached 227, with 25 more deaths reported on Sunday and the situation likely to worsen, officials said.

The relief ministry didn't specify the causes of the deaths, but officials have said many were due to drowning, lighting, waterborne diseases, electrocution from snapped wires and bites from snakes displaced by water.

Rivers around the capital, Dhaka, burst their banks, leaving 40 per cent of the city of 10 million people under water. Parts of the central business district and two upscale residential areas were submerged.

High tides caused by a full moon and rising rivers fed by monsoon rains were likely to worsen the flooding in 23 central and northeastern districts over the next three days, the Flood Forecasting and Warning Center said.

Hundreds of people from flooded parts of the capital sheltered in schools or offices. Some families pitched makeshift plastic and bamboo tents on sidewalks beside busy thoroughfares. Transportation was disrupted, with two major highways and railroads linking the capital to the rest of the country were partially submerged. -Agencies