DHAKA, June 28 (Xinhua) -- Record-breaking floods in Bangladesh have wreaked havoc as an estimated 7.2 million people have been affected and remained in desperate need of shelters and emergency relief items in northeastern Bangladesh, an international relief agency said Tuesday.

According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), from early June, torrential rains and upstream water have completely submerged around 94 percent of the town of Sunamganj and 84 percent of Sylhet districts in northeastern Bangladesh, bordering the Meghalaya state of India.

Parts of Meghalaya have experienced the highest amount of rainfalls in decades, which has led to overflowing of large river systems running between India and Bangladesh, and completely inundated surrounding areas, it said.

The IFRC said it launched an emergency appeal of 7.8 million U.S. dollars to support the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BDRCS) to scale up and expand reach of its localized response and recovery efforts to prevent and alleviate the sufferings of 300,000 people affected by the floods.

DBRCS Secretary General Kazi Shofiqul Azam said hundreds of thousands of people took refuge as their houses went under water and almost all their neighborhoods were inundated.

"Large parts of Sunamganj and Sylhet were completely cut off due to severe disruption of road communication and power cuts," said the official.

Volunteer teams were on the ground helping people with much needed dry foods, cooked food, safe drinking water, he said, adding that his organization has launched a strategy involving 10 million U.S. dollars for relief and recovery operations in the affected areas.

IFRC Head of Bangladesh Country Delegation Sanjeev Kafley said Sylhet and Sunamganj have been flooded in the past month, and the IFRC is scaling up relief operations alongside the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society to help more people. Enditem

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