More than a half million people were marooned in Bangladesh in a new wave of floods caused by monsoon rains over the past week, relief officials said on Tuesday. The rivers Teesta, Jamuna and the mighty Brahmaputra, which flows from India, were in spate disrupting train and road links in the north and north-western parts of the country and leaving tens of thousands of people stranded.
Many were living on river islands, cut off for nearly a week, a disaster management official said.
At least 10 people had died either by drowning or snake bites, mostly in Rangpur, Nilphamari and Sherpur districts.
Several towns including Kurigram district headquarters, 400 km (250 miles) north-west of Dhaka, were under knee-deep water. Schools and government offices were shut down. The Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre said the rivers in north-western Bangladesh would rise further if heavy rains continued in the area and neighbouring north-east Indian states.
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