Twenty-six people have died and nearly 200,000 have been evacuated as a result of massive flooding in the eastern Indian state of Orissa, a minister said on Thursday. The floods were triggered by torrential monsoon rains across Orissa, causing water levels to breach river banks, prompting a huge rescue operation in which helicopters dropped off emergency supplies to help the stranded.
“The floods have killed 26 people and 12 others are missing,” Orissa’s Disaster Management Minister Surya Narayan Patra told AFP in the state capital Bhubaneswar, painting a picture of widespread devastation. “We have evacuated 193,000 people to relative safety,” he added, warning that the death toll was likely to rise.
