British Red Cross chief executive Sir Nicholas Young has been visiting India where tens of thousands of villagers have been made homeless by severe flooding.

Monsoon rains have stranded hundreds of thousands people across Bangladesh and India. In low-lying Bangladesh, more than half a million people have been marooned in towns and villages in the north of the country after the Brahmaputra and Padma rivers burst their banks. Thousands of people have been living on rooftops for more than a week.Across the border in India's north-eastern state of Assam thousands of displaced people are staying in makeshift shelters under tarpaulin sheets by the side of roads, on bridges and in government buildings. The Indian Red Cross has deployed 40 boats to deliver emergency relief to thousands affected and local volunteers are providing first aid.

The scale of the flooding this year is mind-numbing, with millions displaced, and no sign of a halt to the rain.

Sir Nicholas Young, British Red Cross chief executive

Hundreds of thousands of hectares of farmland have been submerged across tea- and oil-rich Assam, affecting around two million paddy farmers. Roads and major highways across the hilly region have also been blocked due to landslides and some roads have been completely washed away by gushing waters. At least 75 people have died in the past week in Assam and Bihar states.

Sir Nicholas, who was in Bihar last week, said: "The scale of the flooding this year is mind-numbing, with millions displaced, and no sign of a halt to the rain."

Relief

In his blog, he wrote: "The remote community I visited in Barari Kothi just two or three days ago must be literally under water by now, and people whose lives and living conditions were already meagre enough will now have nothing. I realise that we were lucky to get out, wading through torrents, when we did. I think of those who have no chance of escape."

Sir Nicholas visited the headquarters of the Indian Red Cross, which has dispatched food and hygiene items for at least 10,000 families.

The Bihar state Branch is actively involved in search and rescue operations, assisting the local authorities. It has also delivered tarpaulin sheets for shelter, kitchen items and clothes.

Read Sir Nicholas' blog from India