Thousands flee as flood toll rises

Soldiers in Bangladesh used sandbags to reinforce embankments and rhinos in India moved to high ground after a week of floods that have killed 70 people and marooned more than a million.

Soldiers in Bangladesh used sandbags to reinforce embankments and rhinos in India moved to high ground after a week of floods that have killed 70 people and marooned more than a million.

Several thousand people living in villages near the embankments on the Gumti river in Bangladesh's eastern district of Comilla, about 60 miles east of the capital Dhaka, fled their homes.

In the north-eastern Indian state of Assam, large areas of the Kaziranga National Park were submerged, forcing one-horned rhinos to move to higher ground.

N K Vasu, the park director, said at least five rhinos, several elephants, deer and other animals had crossed a busy highway over the past four days. Speed restrictions were imposed near the park, which is home to 1,500 of the world's 2,200 one-horned rhinos.