Over 50 lakh people reeled under unabated onslaught of water as the flood situation in Bihar worsened on Sunday after the embankment along the Tirhut canal in Muzaffarpur district subsided at two points and waters from the Bagmati river entered Darbhanga town.

Thirteen people have lost their lives so far.

The breaches in the embankment along the Tirhut canal occurred near Tilkhi village, around 500m from the place where it joins the Budhi Gandak river, which is already flooded. “One breach is around 20ft wide while another is around 50ft wide on the right embankment of the canal. Water is gushing out from them. We have already evacuated 250 families from two villages — Tilkhi and Muhammadpur — in the vicinity of the breaches,” Muzaffarpur district magistrate Chandrashekhar Singh told The Telegraph.

“Water is spreading in Sakra block, and also on Muzaffarpur-Pusa (Samastipur) route and along National Highway 28,” he said.

Singh said the repair of the two breaches would be possible only after the floods subside.

Muzaffarpur is one of the worst flood-hit districts with 13 out of total 16 blocks affected. Around 13 lakh people are affected here.

So far 14 districts in the state — East Champaran, West Champaran, Sheohar, Sitamarhi, Muzaffarpur, Gopalganj, Siwan, Saran, Kishanganj, Supaul, Darbhanga, Madhubani, Samastipur and Khagaria — have been hit by floods caused by heavy rain in Bihar and Nepal.

Among the total affected, four lakh people have been displaced. The state government has so far put 27,000 in relief camps.