India monsoon floods kill five in northeast

GUWAHATI, India: Torrential monsoon rains in India’s northeast triggered landslides and floods that swept away and killed at least five people in Assam, disaster officials said Saturday.

India’s annual monsoon season from June to September offers respite from intense summer heat and is crucial for replenishing water supplies, but also brings widespread death and destruction.

The deaths recorded are among the first of this season, with scores often killed over the course of the rains across India, a country of 1.4 billion people. The monsoon is a colossal sea breeze that brings South Asia 70-80 percent of its annual rainfall.