At least 950 killed in South Asia’s annual monsoon floods

PATNA, India – Devastating floods triggered by monsoon rains have killed more than 950 people and displaced close to 40 million people across northern India, southern Nepal and northern Bangladesh in recent days.

The rains have led to wide-scale flooding in a broad arc stretching across the Himalayan foothills in the three countries, causing landslides, damaging roads and electric towers and washing away tens of thousands of homes and crops.

The northern Indian states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Assam in the remote northeast are the worst hit, accounting for the deaths of 680 people, most of them from drowning, snake bites or landslides.

South Asia’s monsoon rains last between June and September.