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Flash floods, mudslides kill 25 in India's northeast
Guwahati, India (AFP) June 16, 2008 Flash floods and mudslides unleashed by heavy monsoon rains have claimed 25 lives and displaced 200,000 people in northeastern India, officials said Monday. Six people drowned overnight in Assam state as they tried to escape gushing floodwaters in bamboo rafts, state relief and rehabilitation minister Bhumidhar Barman said. "We have reports of six deaths so far and about 200,000 people displaced from their homes in the two districts of Lakhimpur and Sonitpur with the flood situation turning critical," Barman told AFP. The death toll in a series of mudslides on the weekend in the neighbouring state of Arunachal Pradesh has mounted to 19. "Rescue work is still on and you never know, there could be more bodies trapped under the debris with at least 30 houses caving in," district magistrate Bidul Payeng said. Army and paramilitary soldiers were called out Monday in Assam's Sonitpur and Lakhimpur districts to rescue marooned villagers. Hundreds of people trapped in their houses were brought to safety and at least 50 makeshift camps have been set up for displaced villagers. A Central Water Commission bulletin Monday said the main Brahmaputra river and its tributaries were flowing above the danger level in at least six places, with the trend likely to increase. The Regional Meteorological Centre warned of more rains and thundery showers in the next 24 hours. The 2,906-kilometer (1,816-mile) river -- one of Asia's longest -- traverses China's Tibet region, India and Bangladesh before emptying into the Bay of Bengal. Every year the monsoon causes the river to flood, submerging paddy fields, washing away villages, drowning livestock and killing people in Assam, a remote state of 26 million people. In 2004, at least 200 people died and more than 12 million were displaced in the floods. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Share This Article With Planet Earth
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Losing just 15 buildings rips heart out of flooded Iowa town
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