Floods make a million homeless in India's Assam state

GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) -- Floods have made more than a million people homeless in India's northeastern state of Assam where the army and air force have been called in to help rescue efforts, officials said on Friday.

Hundreds of villages have been inundated by the overflowing River Brahmaputra and its tributaries which have been rising as heavy rains continued for the second day on Thursday.

Police and hospital authorities say 13 people have been killed. The state government has set up 40 relief camps and thousands have set up temporary homes along the highways.

"Soldiers have been requisitioned and pressed into service for rescue and relief operations and air force helicopters have been dropping food packets," Dhirendra Nath Saikia, a senior civil servant, told Reuters.

More than 100 people died in floods in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh this week.

In Bangladesh, south of Assam, water levels in the Ganges (or Padma) have been rising fast, threatening floods in central parts of the country.

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