Several bodies, decomposed, bloated and suspected to be of Covid-19 victims, were found floating in the river Ganga in Buxar district of Bihar on Monday. Officials in Chausa, Buxar, which borders Uttar Pradesh, rushed to the spot upon hearing the news. “Some 40-45 bodies were seen floating,” NDTV quoted Chausa district official Ashok Kumar as saying. Some news channels claimed the number of bodies to be as high as 100, which he said was “highly exaggerated”.

“They are bloated and have been in the water for at least five to seven days. We are disposing of the bodies. We need to investigate where they are from, which town in UP — Bahraich or Varanasi or Allahabad,” NDTV quoted another official, K K Upadhyay, as saying. Kumar told PTI that “none of the deceased happens to be a resident of the district.”