Monsoon floods in Bangladesh leave 2,000 homeless

Floods caused by heavy monsoon rains over the weekend claimed two lives and washed away hundreds of flimsy huts, leaving nearly 2,000 people homeless in northern Bangladesh.

Rain-fed rivers burst their banks, swamping more than 200 farming villages in seven northern districts – Gaibandha, Lalmonirhat, Rangpur, Kurigram, Sirajganj, Bogra and Nilphamari, relief officials said.

Up to 200,000 people have been affected, many of them losing rice crops, said the officials, adding that many residents were relying on small boats for transportation after roads were flooded.

One woman was swept away yesterday by swirling flood waters in Rangpur district, 155 miles north of the capital, Dhaka.

Also yesterday, a schoolboy died after being attacked by a snake in flood waters in Ranpgpur district.

Three people have died in floods in the low-lying delta nation in the past two weeks.

The daily newspaper Sangbad reported that about 2,000 people were forced to take shelter on flood embankments after hundreds of mud-and-straw huts were swept away in neighbouring Lalmonirhat district.