A rain-swollen river in Bangladesh has burst its banks, sending torrents of water through more than 100 villages south-east of the capital and leaving thousands of people homeless, officials said on Thursday.
They said the sudden collapse of about 100 m (330 ft) of the Gumti river embankment late on Wednesday inundated thousands of houses.
No deaths or injuries had been reported, said an official in nearby Comilla town, 150 km (100 miles) from Dhaka.
Bangladeshis are still reeling from the country's worst floods in 15 years in July, which killed more than 700 people and left around 10 million homeless.
The heaviest rainfall in more than half a century over the past week has put large parts of the country, including the capital Dhaka, under 3 to 4 ft (0.9 to 1.2m) of water and added to the misery of millions in the impoverished country.
The rain eased on Wednesday but weather officials said there could be intermittent showers over the next two days.
Local authorities called in the army to plug the breach on the embankment in Devidwar area of Comilla district, but officials said there was little they could do.
"They failed to do anything immediately as the torrents were too strong," said Haradhan Shil, Comilla district relief officer.
"The (army) engineers will try to repair the breach once the flows start easing," he told Reuters.
The embankment also developed cracks at a point near the Mainamati garrison town, several miles (kms) from Devidwar, officials said, but soldiers and civil workers were using sandbags to try to repair the cracks.
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