Death toll rises from South Asian floods

Another five people drowned in floods ravaging South Asia, police said Sunday, while authorities in India's eastern Bihar state called for more troops amid widespread looting of government food stores.
The latest deaths, in India's north-eastern Assam and Meghalaya states, brings to at least 356 the number of people killed in the floods affecting Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal, according to the authorities in the various countries.
Some 23 million people, mainly in India and Bangladesh, have been affected or displaced by the flooding, which began with the annual monsoon rains in mid-June.
The chief magistrates of Rosera and Samastipur districts of Bihar sent calls Sunday for more army help as the flood situation deteriorated, officials said.
In Rosera, hundreds of flood victims looted supplies from government relief centers Saturday evening, the office of the district magistrate said.
The victims also staged protests outside the offices of the sub-divisional officer and deputy superintendent of police, trapping them inside for hours, an official in the state capital Patna said.
Similar incidents of the looting of food were reported from Samastipur, Darbhanga and Madhubani districts as flood victims complained of poor relief distribution, police said.
Hundreds of soldiers using 40 boats are already distributing flood relief but with more than 12 million people affected, many in remote areas have yet to be reached, a disaster management official said.
The army has so far air-dropped 226 tonnes of food materials in some 210 sorties with the help of seven helicopters in Bihar, a government statement said.
In neighbouring Assam state, the news was equally grim.
Police said another two people drowned in Assam when their boats capsized in separate incidents.
"There are some signs of the water level marginally receding in certain areas, but the overall flood situation continues to be critical," Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi told AFP.
Drownings were also reported in the nearby state of Meghalayha.
"Three women were washed away by strong currents of the Myntdu river," a police official said by telephone from the state capital Shillong. With the latest incidents, the total number of people dead or missing stands at 183 in India, 86 in Nepal, 68 in Bangladesh, 16 in Afghanistan and three in Bhutan, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Media reports say the overall toll may be far higher.
Meanwhile, officials in Bangladesh said Sunday that the floods which have submerged large parts of the country worsened Sunday, with floodwater inundating low-lying areas close to the capital Dhaka.