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Monsoon rains batter South Asia, killing more than 200

Floods and landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains have killed at least 221 people in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar and Nepal over the past month.

More than one million people have been marooned and hundreds of thousands have fled after homes and structures were destroyed, as they searched for higher ground.

Indian officials said floods and mudslides killed 16 more people in the northeast and eight people were killed in building collapses in Mumbai, raising the death toll in the country to 101. Nepal reported at least 117 deaths over the past month and Bangladesh reported three.

Eight people were killed in two partial building collapses in Mumbai on Thursday, the fire service control room said on Friday.

One of the buildings was dilapidated and most residents had vacated it for repair but some families stayed, the fire service said. Six people died there.

Rain caused the Brahmaputra River, which flows through Tibet, India and Bangladesh, to burst its banks in India’s Assam state late last month, inundating large swathes of the state, triggering mudslides and displacing about 3.6 million people, officials said. Vast tracts are still underwater, with 26 of the state’s 33 districts badly affected.

Annual monsoon rains hit the region in June-September. The rains are crucial for rain-fed crops planted during the season but often cause extensive damage.

-with agencies

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