India, May 30 -- The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Friday issued red alerts for five north eastern states, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Manipur. Most parts of northeast India have been witnessing heavy rainfall since Thursday night, which have continued till Friday afternoon, meteorological department officials said.

According to the regional Met centre in Guwahati, the downpours are due to a depression over Bangladesh which is slowly moving towards the northeast.

"The heavy rainfall that we are witnessing is due to the present depression over Bangladesh. It is moving slowly towards the northeast and is likely to weaken into a well-marked low pressure area in the next 24 hours," said Sunit Das, scientist ...