Flood waters surged over mud embankments and inundated more villages on Thursday in Bangladesh, where monsoon rains have killed 64 people and marooned more than a million over the past week.
Soldiers and volunteers used sandbags to reinforce levees threatened by the swollen Gumti River in Comilla district, said Tariqul Islam, the government administrator in the area, 90 km east of the Bangladesh capital, Dhaka.
Several thousand people living in villages near the embankments fled their homes, some taking refuge in school buildings, Islam said.
Elsewhere, four people drowned yesterday in Kurigram district, 240 kms north of Dhaka, bringing the death toll from the flooding in Bangladesh to 64, government relief officials said.
Authorities said 20 of Bangladesh's 64 districts have been hit by monsoon floods, affecting more than a million people. Many have lost crops, livestock and flimsy huts. Those marooned by the floods have only small boats for transportation.
Dozens of villages in the northeastern district of Sylhet were swamped yesterday, stranding another 50,000 people, officials said. Sylhet is 190 kms northeast of Dhaka.
{{/usCountry}}Dozens of villages in the northeastern district of Sylhet were swamped yesterday, stranding another 50,000 people, officials said. Sylhet is 190 kms northeast of Dhaka.
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