AHMEDABAD, Aug 25: As many as 10,000 people residing in low lying areas in Gujarat have been shifted to safer places following incessant rains for the last two days even as the toll in the current monsoon mounted to 265 with ten more deaths reported from different parts of the state.

Several people have been evacuated from three villages in Broach district as the Narmada river was flowing above the danger mark at 7.64 metres at Golden Bridge today, the flood control in-charge, S N Dave said. Deaths were reported from Sabarkantha, Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Vadodara and Surat due to drowning, lightning and wall collapse incidents, he said. Six hundred flood affected people were given shelter in Kheda district, 2555 from several villages in Padra, Savli and Vadodara talukas of Vadodara, 1000 in Bharuch, 1336 in Valsad.

The highest rainfall of 266 mm was reported from Dangs in south Gujarat during the last 24 hours. Dediapada in Bharuch received 205 mm, Chanasma in Mehsana district 167 mm, and Sanand in Ahmedabad district 139 mm.

Kadana and Panam dams in Panchmahal district, Vanakbori in Kheda, Damanganga in Valsad and Karjan in Bharuch were overflowing. Ten talukas recorded rainfall ranging between 101 mm and 200 mm and two talukas over 200 mm during the past 24 hours. A two-year-old girl was killed and five other members of her family injured in a wall collapse at Ranchhodpura village in Savli taluka on Saturday, while a boy drowned in a creek on the outskirts of Surat, flood control cell said. Many rain affected people residing in Varasiya, Bhimnath and several localities in Manjalpur area of Vadodara have been provided shelter in the municipal corporation run schools and provided food, Municipal Commissioner Vilasiniben Ramchandran said.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.