Patna: Over 500 people have perished in the current spell of floods in Bihar with fresh reports of 23 deaths from six flood-hit districts today as nearly 20.5 million people continue to reel under the impact of floods in 20 districts.

State disaster management department sources said 23 more deaths were reported from Darbhanga (09), Samastipur (04), Begusarai (02), East Champaran (04), Madhubani (02) and Muzaffarpur (02) during the past 24 hours, taking the toll to 501. Darbhanga alone had so far accounted for the largest number of 98 deaths, followed by Samastipur (84), East Champaran (78), Muzaffarpur (51), Khagaria (50) and Begusarai (20).

Rest of the deaths were reported from flood-hit Supaul, West Champaran, Madhubani, Nalanda, Madhepura, Vaishali, Sitamarhi and Katihar districts. Nearly 20.5 million people of 9,864 villages under 225 blocks were affected by floods in 20 flood-hit districts where standing crops worth over Rs 701.93 crore in 15.88 lakh hectares of land had been damaged, they said.

Besides over 4.01 lakh houses, the value of which was estimated to be Rs 431.52 crore, had been destroyed, they added. Altogether 6,965 boats have been deployed for providing relief material to the affected people and evacuate the marooned villagers to safer places, sources said.