Myanmar dam overflow floods 100 villages

Around 12,000 households were affected. Pic/AFP

Monsoon rains caused a central Myanmar dam to overflow yesterday, inundating about 100 villages and blocking the country's biggest highway, a government official said.

No casualties have been reported, but thousands were displaced and took shelter in temporary camps. Swar Chaung dam's spillway structure, which regulates the release of water from the levee, broke due to heavy seasonal rainfall in Bago region, authorities said.

The water gushed into the rural flatland region as people fled their homes. "We don't have exact data about the number of victims," Ministry of Social Welfare director Phyu Lae Lae Tun said.

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