Nineteen killed in heavy rains
Pastor Dale Morgan
Nineteen killed in heavy rains*
From correspondents in New Delhi
September 26, 2006 04:14am
Article from: Agence France-Presse
AT least 19 people have died in torrential rains pounding the eastern
Indian state of Bihar for the fifth straight day today, officials said.
The Press Trust of India (PTI) quoting state officials said four people
sheltering behind a brick-and-mortar wall were crushed to death today
when it collapsed due to the rains in the state's Muzaffarpur town.
An unnamed woman and her five children were killed in a similar
rain-related accident yesterday in the state's water-logged Nalanda
district, a state administration spokesman said.
Nine others were killed in separate incidents of house collapse and
drowning in the past five days in Bihar where non-stop rain since Friday
has inundated large parts of the populous state, PTI said.
The provincial administration today shut schools and colleges in the
state capital of Patna and in nearby Bhagalpur district because of the
blinding downpour, the government spokesman said.
"At least 100 villages in five blocks (counties) are flooded and road
networks are on the verge of collapse," an official from the state
relief department told reporters in Patna.
Hundreds of people have died across India in floods since the onset of
monsoon in June this year.