Saturday, July 28, 2007
Monsoon floods and mudslides kill at least 21 people in eastern India (8:57 p.m.)
GAUHATI, India -- Floods and mudslides caused by heavy monsoon rains killed at least 21 people and forced hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate their homes this week in the east and remote northeast of India, officials said Saturday.
Nine people were buried alive and an unspecified number injured in Meghalaya state, in the far northeast bordering Bangladesh, when a mudslide swamped their mud and thatch huts. In neighboring Assam, four people were carried away by surging flood waters, officials said.
The police have evacuated 70 other people who were trapped in the mudslide area but nine people are feared dead as they are buried under mud since Friday in the Rishipara area in Meghalaya's West Garo Hills district.
Flood waters have submerged nearly 800 villages in Assam and the government has opened more than 30 relief camps where nearly 15,000 people have sought shelter.
In Bihar state, heavy rains and flooding have killed eight people and left another 137,000 homeless in the past week, state disaster management secretary Manoj Srivastava said.
India's monsoon rains, which began two month ago, have killed more than 200 people across the country this year. (AP)
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