One of the world’s largest rivers, the Brahmaputra, which flows into India and neighboring Bangladesh from Tibet, blew its banks into Assam over the past three days, inundating more than 1,900 villages.
Heavy rain swept through most of the rugged state, and rain continued on Wednesday, with more forecasts expected over the next two days.
“The flood situation is turning critical every hour,” Bijosh Hazarika, Assam’s water resources minister, told Reuters, adding that seven people had drowned in separate incidents over the past three days.
Indian Army soldiers have rescued more than 2,000 trapped people in Hogai district in an ongoing rescue effort, according to the state’s health minister Kshabab Mahanta.
National authorities said water levels were expected to rise in the Brahmaputra River.
“The situation remains very grave in the hardest-hit Dima Hasaw district, with railways and roads cut off by floods and landslides,” said Assam’s Minister of Revenue Gojen Mohan, who is overseeing relief efforts there.
Meanwhile, other cities in India, notably the capital, New Delhi, are experiencing a heat wave that has engulfed most of South Asia.
Jacobabad, one of the world’s hottest cities, in Pakistan’s Sindh province, recorded 51 degrees Celsius (123.8 Fahrenheit) last Sunday, and 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) the day before. In India, temperatures in Delhi topped 49 degrees Celsius (120 Fahrenheit) on Sunday.
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