24 die in Indian floods

Twenty-four people were drowned when flash floods inundated hundreds of villages around a commercial town in India's northern Uttar Pradesh state, a government official said on Saturday. Heavy rainfall in the catchment areas of two rivers led to water breaching the banks of a tributary flowing through the town of Azamgarh on Friday, he said.
"As many as 750 villages were completely submerged and over 50 villages were marooned," a spokesman for the state's home department said. "The floods have affected nearly 800,000 people in the area." The army was called in to assist civilian authorities, he added. Heavy monsoon rains have caused havoc this year, particularly in western India where more than 1,000 people have died in floods.