NEW DELHI — The death toll from floods sweeping South Asia has climbed above 1,000, officials said Thursday, as rescue teams try to reach millions stranded by the region’s worst monsoon disaster in recent years.
Thousands of soldiers and emergency personnel have been deployed across India, Bangladesh and Nepal, where authorities say a total of 1,009 bodies have been recovered since August 10 when intense rainfall started falling.
In neighboring Uttar Pradesh, floods have swamped nearly half the vast state of 220 million, India’s most populous.
Disaster management agency spokesman T P Gupta told AFP 82 people had died and more than two million affected by the disaster there.
The state borders Nepal, where 146 people have died and 80,000 homes destroyed in what the United Nations is calling the worst flooding in 15 years. — AFP
