South Asia floods: Appeals for Help as Monsoon Rains Cause Havoc in India, Nepal, Bangladesh

There is an urgent need for rescue and relief services on the Indian subcontinent as severe monsoon flooding spreads across India, Nepal and Bangladesh, leaving more than 1,200 people dead since the rains started.

Oxfam said its Bangladesh staff reported two-thirds of the country was under water and in some areas the flooding was the worst since 1988, creating an urgent demand for humanitarian supplies. Widescale flooding in an arc stretching across the Himalayan foothills caused landslides and washed away tens of thousands of homes and vast swathes of farmland. The UN said about 40 million had been affected.

Two toddlers were among 14 of the latest deaths as heavy rain destroyed homes and disrupted traffic in India's financial capital, Mumbai. Several villages in the east Indian state of Bihar are still inundated, with people living in makeshift shelters for days amid widespread heavy damage to farmland. The deluge in Mumbai — nearly a month's average rainfall in a single day — halted train services and led to flight cancellations.

A building collapse in the city left 12 people dead and at least 25 others trapped. Forecasts of more heavy rains forced the Government to order schools and colleges to shut. Officials said train and air services were operating normally late on Wednesday in Mumbai, home to India's two biggest stock exchanges and several major companies. The deluge revived memories of 2005 floods that killed more than 500 people, the majority of them in shantytown slums where more than half of the city's 20 million people live...