Mass evacuation in India's flood-threatened northeast

GUWAHATI, India, Sept 10, 2007 (AFP) - Hundreds of thousands of people threatened by overflowing rivers caused by monsoon rains in India's northeastern state of Assam have been evacuated, officials said Monday.

The state has experienced flooding since Wednesday, state relief minister Bhumidhar Barman said, with the Brahmaputra and its tributaries breaching their embankments late Sunday, forcing the army to move an estimated 800,000 people.

"The flood situation has worsened," Barman said, adding that thousands of villages had been inundated and 20 of 27 state districts had been affected.

An official bulletin said the massive Brahmaputra River, which flows from Tibet through India to Bangladesh and the Bay of Bengal, was above the danger level in 17 places.

"The army is working overtime in the affected areas and we have kept on standby Indian air force helicopters to carry out relief and rescue," said Barman.

Soldiers rescued villagers marooned by waters in six hard-hit districts in Assam, a state of 26 million people, he said.

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