Indian rescuers struggle to evacuate last 300,000 flood victims

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Source: CCTV.com | 09-05-2008 09:42

Rescuers struggled on Thursday to evacuate the last 300,000 villagers still stranded in flood-ravaged northern India, more than two weeks after monsoon rains caused the Kosi River in neighboring Nepal to burst its banks.

Indian villagers are rescued from floodwaters in flood-hit  north-east India on September 3.(AFP/Diptendu Dutta)

Towns and villages housing about 1.2 million people have been flooded, and hundreds of square kilometers of India's impoverished Bihar state have been turned into a giant lake.

Authorities have already evacuated about 680,000 people in the past ten days with the help of 3,500 soldiers and 500 navy personnel.

More than one-third are living in government-run relief camps. Authorities also rushed 900 doctors and set up 125 makeshift health centers in the worst-hit districts.