More than a million people in India flood relief camps

Floods have killed more than 410 people and destroyed about 50,000 homes

CHENGANNUR, INDIA: More than one million people have packed relief camps to escape devastating monsoon floods that have killed more than 410 people in India's southwestern state of Kerala, officials said Tuesday.

About 50,000 homes have been destroyed, according to one Kerala legislator, and people are flocking to the camps as the scale of the desolation is revealed by receding waters.



Thousands of army, navy and air force personnel have fanned out across the state to help those stranded in remote and hilly areas.

A total of 1,028,000 people were now recorded in about 3,200 relief camps across the state, a state government spokesperson told AFP.

Six more bodies were found Monday, he added, taking the death toll to more than 410 since the monsoon started in June.



Receding flood waters left Indian troops and rescuers the grim task Monday of hunting for bodies left by the worst monsoon in a century in Kerala state as the death toll rose above 400.

With nearly three quarters of a million people packed into relief camps in the southern state, known for its tourist beaches and hill resorts, authorities also fear outbreaks of disease.