3 OCTOBER 1908, Page 17

Floods resulting in a terrible leas of life have occurred

at Haidarabad. They were caused by torrential rains which made the Musi River overflow. This river flows through Haidarabad, separating the oily proper from the suburbs, and the population of the town and all its outlying parts is nearly

half-a-million. It is said that there were no European casual- ties, but one report puts the number of native lives lost as high as' ten thousand. The village of Ghauliauda of a thousand houses on the river-bank has disappeared in the mud. The Muii became sixty feet deep at the height of the flood, and within forty-eight hours it was once again a tiny stream. The nurses of the Victoria Zenana Hospital saved the patients by carrying them to the roof. The water rose to within two feet of where they lay. A party of officials from the British Residency saved many persons in a boat, rescuing them from the tops of trees and of temples. The Nizam's troops are insufficient to keep order, and there has been some looting. An epidemic is feared as the district is strewn with corpses. Haidarabad had a very fine bridge of the sixteenth century, and we fear it has been washed away; but this and similar losses are nothing compared with the appalling loss of life.