The monsoon death toll in South Asia climbed to nearly 1,800 Thursday as rescue workers battled to get drugs and food to tens of millions of flood victims and risks from waterborne diseases mounted.
Floodwaters from the annual torrential rains were retreating across much of the region but victims remained in desperate need of relief supplies, aid workers said.
"This is a race against time to get relief to people as soon as possible," Tony Maryon, head of the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, told AFP by telephone from the central Sirajganj district.
The rains in India, Bangladesh and Nepal have devastated crops, washed away roads and homes, left tens of millions homeless and killed at least 1,783 people, according to an AFP tally since July 10 based on official figures.
Media reports say the final toll from the June-September rains may be far greater.
"One family showed us where they used to live and it is literally in the middle of a big river now," Maryon said. "You can see the despair on their faces - they know there are hard times ahead. Land is in such short supply in Bangladesh and now they really have nowhere to go.
Meanwhile, police in eastern India said they opened fire on a stone-throwing mob, protesting what they said was a lack of food relief, in a town near Bihar state capital Patna, killing a 14-year-old boy.
"Police had to open fire (late Wednesday) to stop the rioting flood victims from damaging government property," said police superintendent H.N. Deva.
Bihar has been worst hit in India by flooding, with officials saying at least 605 have died. Countrywide, the death toll was at least 962.
In Nepal, at least 183 have died while in Bangladesh some 638 have been killed in what government officials say is the worst flooding since 1998, the country's official BSS news agency said.
Flood waters were receding across Bangladesh but there was "crying need for emergency food and medical aid" for millions of victims living in temporary shelters and there was a "massive" outbreak of diarrhoea, the news agency said.
Health workers have warned thousands could die if medical supplies are not delivered to check the outbreak of water-borne and acute respiratory diseases, one of the biggest killers of children.
Some 33 million people have been affected by the flooding, the heaviest since Bangladesh's worst floods of 1998, BSS said.
The Bangladeshi government has said the floods have caused 6.6 billion dollars worth of damage to infrastructure and property. The UN has said Bangladesh would need a year to recover from the floods.
Separately, as waters began to recede, Meteorological Office sources told the official news agency BSS that a mild earthquake was felt Wednesday in Bangladesh's north-western Rangpur district, 248 kilometres (155 miles) from the capital, Dhaka.
The tremor reportedly lasted four seconds and there were no reports of damage.
In India's western state of Gujarat, flood waters that were up to 10 feet high (three metres) in places were receding in the south, worst hit in recent days by the monsoon, Gujarat relief commissioner V.A. Sathe said.
Some 179 have died in the state since the rains hit the state two weeks ago and at last 18 were missing, police director general A.K. Bargav told AFP.
But weather officials said more heavy rains were in store in the western and north-western regions, which had been facing drought, threatening economic growth in the agriculture-dependent country of more than one billion.
Fire-fighters were pressed into service to help soldiers in Gujarat rescue stranded people and distribute food but "overcast skies are making rescues difficult by helicopter so we're relying mostly on boats" Sathe said.
Soldiers using boats and helicopters have plucked at least 50,000 people to safety in Gujarat, where swollen rivers spilled their banks, submerging huts and sending people fleeing with only the possessions they could carry.
The rains also created transport chaos for a second day, forcing the cancellation of many long-distance trains in Gujarat and in neighbouring Maharashtra state, home to India's financial hub, Bombay, officials said.
Some workers waded knee-deep in water to reach offices. Financial institutions and other businesses said many people did not turn up for work.
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