Dozens killed as floods hit India, Nepal

GUWAHATI (AFP) - Dozens of people have been killed and nearly three million hit by floods triggered by torrential monsoon rains in India and Nepal, officials said on Saturday.

At least 38 people have died in heavy flooding and landslides across the region, where homes have been swept away and crops destroyed.
In Nepal, officials said 11 people had died this week in floods and landslides.

They said thousands of others were hit by the flooding, which disrupted road transport and shut down schools and markets in towns and villages in rain-lashed southern plains.

"Dozens of houses have been swept away and the crops damaged," said district administrator Durga Prasad Bhandari from the town of Gaur, southwest of the capital Kathmandu.

Swirling floods in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, which adjoins Nepal, swept away 14 people and wreaked havoc, said officials.

Two million people were affected by the floods, which inundated homes and farms in India's second most populous state, they said.

Twelve people were killed in worst-hit Bhagalpur district, while two people drowned elsewhere in the state, the Press Trust of India quoted relief officials as saying.