Nearly a million stranded in floods in eastern India

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2007

KOLKATA (AFP) — Floods in eastern India have left nearly a million people stranded, authorities said Saturday, as the nationwide death toll from torrential monsoon rains hit 655.

"All rivers are flowing above the danger level," said Mortaza Hossain, relief minister in West Bengal state, which has been hard hit by the rains.

"Rescuers have evacuated some 6,500 people," he told AFP.

The deluge has marooned almost a million people in 3,000 villages in coastal areas of the state, the minister said.

Five people have been washed away by flood waters, taking the toll in the past week in the state to 20 and nationwide to 655, according to officials and the Press Trust of India (PTI) agency.

In the western Indian state of Rajasthan, a dam, more than...