At least 17 people were killed by lightning during monsoon storms in Bangladesh, while tornadoes destroyed thousands of homes and injured hundreds of villagers, officials and news reports said yesterday in Dhaka.

　　In neighboring India, 30 people were swept to their deaths by swirling flood waters in the impoverished eastern state of Bihar, a relief official said.

　　Another 80 deaths in mountainous Nepal have raised the toll to 485 killed in South Asia, where millions have lost their homes and taken shelter on river embankments, national highways and government-run relief camps since June.

　　The tornadoes in northern Bangladesh on Monday injured 200 people in 23 villages already reeling under the impact of floods, the Sangbad reported.

　　The 17 lightning deaths occurred during pouring rains on Sunday and Monday, the Jugantar newspaper reported.

　　Nearly half of Bangladesh is under flood waters, causing misery to nearly 10 million people.

　　Rivers, fed by torrential rains and melting snow in the Himalayas, surged through embankments and washed away homes, roads and rail tracks across South Asia.

　　India has suffered 275 monsoon-related deaths, Nepal 80, Bangladesh 125 and Pakistan five.

　　Last year, monsoon flooding in the region killed 1,500 people from mid-June to mid-October.

　　In the Indian state of Bihar, rescuers found 30 bodies in the past two days as the level of flood waters began receding in some areas of the worst-hit districts of Darbhanga, Sitamarhi, East Champaran and Samastipur. A total of 13 million people have been affected by flooding over half of the state.

　　Hundreds of paramedics, army engineers and soldiers have ferried relief supplies in boats to the worst-hit areas.

　　Yesterday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited flood-hit parts of India's northeastern Assam state, where at least 63 people have died since June.

　　(The Associated Press)