Gangtok: At least 21 bodies, including those of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) personnel, have so far been found while eight persons are still missing due to flash flood and landslides in remote areas of north Sikkim, official sources said today. The dead include four from the ITBP, two of their family members, and 12 junior officers from the BRO. Other victims were casual labourers, officials said. Most of the casualties are reported from Rangma range. Landslides were caused by heavy rains since September 19, Deputy Commissioner North district TW Khangsherpa said. There were about nine landslides blocking the main road between Chungthang and Mangan in the district, he said. Army and IAF personnel have started rescue operations in full swing. Several landslides blocked the main roads between Chungthang and Pegong. Houses along Lachen river between Rangma and Chungthang were washed away in flash floods along Lachen river. The state government has declared a state of alert along the establishments on the river banks right from Lachen, Lachung, Chungthang, Mangan, Dikchu, Singtam and Rangpo, a government press release said. In the small hours of today, another landslide was reported from a place 1 km away from Mangan, the district headquarter town of north Sikkim. As a result of which, official reports said NH31-A has been blocked leaving the northern side of the Himalayan state cut off. —IANS Situation in Assam grim, 7 killed z The flood situation in Assam is grim with over 800,000 people affected in at least 15 of the 27 districts in the state z Officials said seven persons have died in floods in various places during the past one week. Over 700 villages have also been submerged in the affected areas z The government has sounded an alert, as water level in most of the rivers in the state continue to rise owing to incessant rains in some Upper Assam districts as well as in Arunachal Pradesh z The flood situation is more serious in Kamrup, Jorhat, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Dhemaji, Lakhimpur and Sonitpur districts