ReliefWeb

Key points:

• Monsoon rains have triggered widespread flooding and landslides across three countries

• Over two million people have been displaced as a result of the floods

• Nepal has recorded the most fatalities, with 55 people confirmed dead

Millions of people have been displaced across India, Nepal and Bangladesh after monsoon rains triggered flash floods and landslides over the past week.

India's north-eastern state of Assam has been hit hard by the floods brought by the monsoon, with at least 1.5 million people displaced and 10 dead.

In the Chittagong division of Bangladesh, there have been 10 deaths and about 500,000 displaced as 200 villages have been flooded.

The disaster's death toll has been highest in Nepal, which recorded 55 fatalities on Sunday, with 30 missing and 33 injured, the Government said.

Ten thousand people have been displaced from their homes as incessant monsoon rains pounded many areas in the country since Thursday, submerging large swathes of land, inundating homes and destroying bridges and roads across the country.

Nepalese cabinet spokesman Gokul Banskota said, "the disaster has caused a big loss to the economy".

The Government will make an assessment soon, he added.

Nepal Red Cross spokesman Dibya Raj Poudel said the displaced had been sheltered in schools and other public buildings.

Television channels showed roofs of houses submerged in floodwaters in the southern plains and people wading through chest-deep water with their belongings on their heads.

Nepalese officials said in some areas rains had eased but some rivers in the eastern part of the country were still above flood level. Authorities asked residents to remain alert.

The Kosi River, which flows into the eastern Indian state of Bihar, was among those that had risen above the flood level.

Nepal police official Ishwari Dahal said all 56 gates of the Kosi barrage on the Nepal-India border had been opened last night for six hours to drain out 371,000 cusecs of water, the highest accumulation in 15 years.

A cusec is a measurement of flow, equivalent to one cubic foot per second.

"Its water level has gone down now," Mr Dahal said from the barrage site in south-east Nepal.

The Kosi has been a serious concern for both India and Nepal since it broke its banks in 2008 and changed course, submerging swathes of land and affecting more than 2 million people in India's Bihar state.

About 500 people died in that disaster.