A mudslide buried three people living in a hilltop home, raising the death toll to 49 in fresh floods in India's northeast in the past 10 days, officials said Sunday. «Three people of a family died Saturday as their hilltop house collapsed under the weight of mud and rock loosened by heavy rains during the past week,» said C.K. Bhuyan, an Assam state government official. Monsoon rains pounded Assam state in June, triggering floods, but waters receded in August with a break in the downpour. Heavy rains resumed early this month, however. «Reports reaching us from inaccessible areas indicate up to 49 people have died in the fresh flooding during the past 10 days,» said Bhumidhar Barman, an Assam state minister. At least 80 people have died in floods in Assam since June, and more than 10 million people have been displaced from their homes, officials said. «The situation in the interior areas is grim. At least 10,000 of Assam's 26,000 villages have been affected by the floods this year,» Barman said. Wildlife has also been affected, the Associated Press reported.
