Thousands evacuated from floods in Bihar

PATNA, India (Reuters) - Army troops helped evacuate more than 120,000 people from floods in Bihar, but more bad weather raised fears that rivers would continue to overflow, officials said on Thursday.

The flooding, which officials say is the worst in 50 years, was caused after the Kosi river burst a dam in Nepal where it originates, unleashing huge waves of water that smashed mud embankments downstream in Bihar state.

Many villagers offered prayers and slaughtered goats to appease the Kosi, known as Bihar's "river of sorrow" for its regular floods and tendency to change course.

"We are praying to the river goddess and offering her blood since only she can help us", a village woman in the worst affected Supaul district told a local newspaper.

At least two million people have been forced from their homes and a quarter of a million houses destroyed. So far 55 deaths have been officially reported in Bihar, but activists and local media put the toll many times higher.

Stranded villagers complained of an unbearable stench from rotting carcasses and the United Nations warned of the spread of water-borne disease.

TV stations showed swirling flood waters pouring into homes through windows, submerging hundreds of villages and roads and railway tracks. Telephone and power lines snapped.

SOME BLAME GLOBAL WARMING