DHAKA: Heavy flooding across Bangladesh has forced thousands of people from their homes and caused severe damage to crops, with officials on Tuesday warning the situation could worsen as floodwaters poured into the capital, Dhaka.

Heavy monsoon rain in recent days has aggravated the situation in the low-lying and densely populated country, with the wet season due to run into September.

“Over the next couple of days the flood situation around Dhaka ... might further deteriorate,” said Sazzad Hussain, an engineer at the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre in the capital.

People in low-lying areas next to the rivers in Dhaka would likely be affected, he added.

An official at the disaster management control room said the floods have affected more than 74,000 people and the number of homeless ran into several thousands, but she gave no official figure.

The floods have also affected crops, with more than 40,000 hectares of farmland submerged in 20 districts, most in the north of the country.

More than 300 schools in flood-hit districts have been shut.

The government has allocated 8,000 tonnes of rice and announced a relief package of 30 million taka ($385,000) for those affected.

Monsoon rains have also caused havoc in neighbouring India this month, with floods triggered by heavy rains in the Himalayas inundating nearly 1,500 villages and killing at least 28 people in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

Five killed in South Korea

Meanwhile, five people have been killed and five others are missing after heavy rains pummelled the southern part of South Korea, rescuers said on Tuesday.

One person was killed when a commuter bus was swept away by a flash flood into a swollen stream near the city of Changwon on Monday, the National Emergency Management Agency said.

Four others aboard the bus were missing, including the driver. TV footage showed the bus being pulled downstream in muddy flood waters, and overturning before getting stuck beneath a bridge.

Rescuers hammered their way through the windows and pulled out the body of a 19-year-old woman, and were searching for the others still missing.

Four other people were killed as torrential rains battered Busan, South Korea’s second largest city.

The victims included two people who were trapped and drowned in their car as they drove through a submerged underpass in Busan.

An engineer was missing after he went down to a flooded building basement to check power lines in the city.

A nuclear power plant in nearby Gijang County was forced to halt operations as a cooling facility was inundated, while heavy rain knocked Busan’s subway out of service for hours.

TV footage showed brown water cascading down stairways and escalators into the subway, and inundating railway tracks.

The city was hit by up to 20 centimetres millimeters (eight inches) of rain in the space of just three hours on Monday.

Heavy rain warnings for Busan and the surrounding area were lifted late on Monday.