Floods have killed at least 22 people in India and Bangladesh, while Indian children were forced to write exams by candlelight and beneath umbrellas as the infrastructure buckled, officials said yesterday.

Water spread around the outskirts of Dhaka, weather officials said yesterday, and the army was preparing for the possibility of flooding in the Bangladeshi capital's eastern area where about three million people live.

The waters have destroyed or inundated homes or damaged crops of more than a million people in northeast India and Bangladesh, officials say.

In India's northeastern state of Assam, eight members of a family, including three children, were crushed to death by a landslide yesterday, police said.

Landslides in neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh state blocked vital roads, disrupting traffic and choking supplies, while authorities used helicopters to pluck marooned people to safety.

Five children playing on a flooded highway in Bangladesh's northern Jamalpur district on Friday were swept to their deaths by the surging current, officials said.

Another five people, including two children, have drowned in Assam since Friday while four flood-related deaths were reported in eastern Bihar as heavy rains continued to top up fast-moving floodwaters.

Floods have submerged highways, including parts of India's busy Grand Trunk road, and knocked out telephone and power lines. At least one school in Bihar's Gopalganj district had to hold exams in a dark room with a dripping ceiling.

For the thousands of people stuck in relief camps there was only gloomy news from India's regional weather office, which expects heavy rains to continue for the next few days.

Around 800 people have been killed because of the flooding in this year's monsoon season in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghani-stan.