The floods in southern India are said to be the worst in 100 years [AFP]

The worst floods to hit southern India in a century have made 2.5 million people homeless and left 250 dead.

At least five million people are crammed in temporary government shelters after heavy rains last week triggered flooding that swamped millions of acres of cropland.

"These are the worst floods in 100 years," said Dharmana Prasada Rao, Andhra Pradesh's minister for revenue and relief.

Relief officials used helicopters and boats to drop off rations and plastic sheets to hundreds of marooned villagers in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, the worst-hit states.

Karnataka appears to have suffered worse.

The death toll rose to 194 and more than 150,000 are staying in hundreds of state-run relief camps, according to R.V. Jagdish, a government spokesman.

Hundreds of thousands more have sought shelter in the homes of friends and relatives.

In neighboring Andhra Pradesh, 60 people have died and more than a million people have sought shelter in 100 relief camps, Dharmana Prasada Rao, the state's revenue minister said.

On Monday, rescue workers used about 300,000 sandbags to fortify weakening embankments of the Krishna river that flows close to Vijayawada, a city of about a million people in Andhra Pradesh and an important trading centre.

More than 50,000 people were trapped by floodwaters near the city, according to The Times of India, with many villages along the bank under 2m of water.

Rescue workers had earlier moved more than 200,000 people living close to the river and an alert was raised in about 100 villages situated along it.

But flood waters have continued to recede on Tuesday after a 48-hour halt in the rain, officials said.

The state governments are now focusing on assessing the damage and ensuring that medical aid reaches the displaced to prevent disease from spreading. Aid workers are also distributing food and clean drinking water in the relief camps.

Officials and relief agencies said flood victims were now sheltered in over 1,200 temporary camps, while vast areas of agricultural land, including sugarcane and paddy fields, were under water.

Media reports quoted officials as saying that billion of dollars were needed for relief and reconstruction.

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