WorldBENARES, AFP -India's holy city of Varanasi has been forced to halt cremations along the banks of the sacred river Ganges as deadly floods from monsoon rains hit parts of the country, an official said Tuesday. More than 100,000 people have been forced from their homes in recent days in northern Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring Bihar states as rain-swollen rivers burst their banks. Cremations have been affected in the Hindu holy city of Allahabad, also in Uttar Pradesh, where pyres were being lit in nearby congested alleys, an official there said. Even if we had sent an ambulance there was no way it could have reached that place,” police superintendent R. K. Pandey told AFP. Several people have also been killed in central Madhya Pradesh state from flooding in the last 24 hours, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.

Source: Sunday Times August 23, 2016 11:03 UTC