Rescuers saved all 354 passengers who were trapped for days in a train that had slowly filled with flood water to neck height, officials said Saturday as raging monsoons continued to submerge vast swaths of Indian countryside and forced the evacuation of half a million people.
"The situation is serious. There is water everywhere. Villages, roads and railway lines are all submerged," federal Home Minister Shivraj Patil told reporters after an aerial tour of flooded areas in western Gujarat state.
At least 500,000 people, mostly poor villagers who lost their homes and belongings, have been evacuated to safer ground and at least 100 people have died this week, news reports said.
