Monsoon floods hit new area of south Asia

Heavy monsoon rains lashed new areas of India, submerging dozens of villages in the West, as health workers raced to provide food and medicine to avert an outbreak of disease in the water-logged North.

More than two weeks of monsoon rains across much of northern India, Bangladesh and Nepal have flooded rivers and inundated plains, killing at least 475 people and stranding some 19 million more, officials said.

Air force helicopters joined army and civil authorities in rescue operations after torrential rains yesterday cut off more than 400 villages in western Indian Gujarat state, killing at least seven people, said DA Satya, a top state official.

The worst-hit Junagadh district received 18.5 inches of rain in 24 hours, submerging several villages under 6 feet of water, Satya told The Associated Press.

Authorities shifted more than 17,000 people to camps on higher ground in Rajkot, Junagadh, Jamnagar, Surat and Porbander districts where 564 villages were left without electricity, he said.

Another seven deaths were reported in northern Uttar Pradesh state overnight, including a child who fell from the roof of his home into floodwaters and was swept away, said Surender Shrivastav, a police spokesman.

The six others were killed either when their houses collapsed, from snake bites or electrocution from contact with submerged electric wires in Basti district and neighbouring areas, Shrivastav said.

There were no further reports of disease. Nearly 1,000 people have been treated for cholera and gastroenteritis in Uttar Pradesh, officials said.

With flood waters receding in the north and thousands of villagers returning to their homes, aid workers have rushed food, clean drinking water and medicine to flood-hit areas to ward off a disease epidemic.

Villagers have been given chlorine tablets to purify drinking water and were advised to take precautions for the next few days, said LB Prasad, the director-general of state health services.