Rescue workers evacuated some 200,000 people after flooding by one of India's largest rivers killed 16 people at the weekend, officials said on Sunday. Large parts of the coastal Orissa state were inundated after authorities were forced to open dozens of sluice gates of a dam on the Mahanadi River following heavy rain in the catchment area. “At least 200,000 people were evacuated from their homes and moved to safer places,” G.V. Venugopala Sarma, a revenue official, told Reuters. He said more people were being moved. TV stations showed people fleeing the floods with whatever they could carry.
