Rescuers in boats negotiated muddy waters today to reach thousands stranded in central Myanmar after a dam overflowed, sending a torrent of water across farmland and villages. No casualties have yet been reported but state media said more than 63,000 people in Bago region were affected after the Swar Chaung dam overflowed yesterday morning. The dam's spillway, a structure that controls the release of more than 20,000 cubic metres of water held in Swar Chaung's levee, was broken by seasonal rainfall.

It is the second major flood caused by damage to the dam in weeks in the region after at least 35 people were killed, scores left missing and thousands displaced by a collapsed hydropower facility in neighbouring Laos.
AFP reporters in Bago province saw soldiers sporting orange life jackets employed to rescue the stranded, steering tin boats to waiting villagers huddled on mudflats. Trucks were lodged in murky waters while roads had buckled under the weight of the waters, which continued to flow across the villages.