Flash floods kill one, displace 400,000

Guwahati: One person was killed and up to 400,000 have been displaced in flash floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains in Assam, officials said on Sunday.

A government spokesperson said a tribal villager was drowned when his boat capsized on Saturday in South Asia's biggest river island of Majuli in Jorhat district, about 320 km east of Assam's main city of Guwahati.

"The elderly villager was on a country boat trying to get essentials for his family when it capsized. His body was recovered later," a police official in Majuli said.

The current wave of flooding in the past one week has left about 400,000 people displaced in 500-odd villages in the four districts of Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Jorhat and Nagaon.

"The situation continues to be grim and we have already put rescue teams in action," said state Revenue and Rehabilitation Minister Bhumidhar Barman.

Most of the displaced people are were now lodged at makeshift shelters on raised embankments.