Patna: With five more deaths, the death toll in Bihar floods reached 97 on Saturday (July 20), the state's disaster management department said.

Four deaths reported from Madhubani district which accounted for 18 casualties and one from Darbhanga where a total of 10 people died in the deluge.

Sitamarhi, with 27 deaths, remained the worst-affected district, the disaster management department said in its report.

Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi toured Sitamarhi to take stock of relief and rehabilitation work in the district on Saturday.

A total of 12 districts of Bihar have been affected by flash floods that have hit the state in the wake of torrential rainfall in the catchment areas of neighbouring Nepal last week.

Altogether 55.04 lakh people, spread across 921 panchayats falling under 97 blocks of the flood-affected districts, are said to have been hit by the calamity.

The administration has set up 130 relief camps, 126 of these in Sitamarhi and the remaining four in Madhubani, both of which have accounted for the maximum number of deaths.

A total of 26 teams of the NDRF and the SDRF are patrolling the flood-hit areas, in addition to 796 personnel devoted to relief and rehabilitation work. They have been equipped with 125 boats for the purpose, the release said.

At many villages, locals have built bridge-like structures with the help of bamboos to cross canals.