PATNA, India -- At least two people died as incessant monsoon rains caused rivers in eastern India to overflow, flooding the homes of some 300,000 people, authorities said on Sunday.

They said some 250,000 people had been hit in the eastern state of Bihar alone when flood waters entered their houses, forcing thousands to flee to safety.

"Two people were killed when they were trying to cross an overflowing river in Sitamarhi district," Bihar's Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner Girish Shankar told Reuters.

Local media reports put the toll at four, including two people who drowned when a boat carrying them capsized in the district.

Shankar said the situation was expected to worsen as heavy rains had been forecast over the next two days. He said seven districts had been badly hit by rains over the last three days.

The state government was rushing food packets and other relief materials to the flood-hit regions and arrangements were being made to shift people to relief camps, he said.

Officials in the northeastern state of Assam said an estimated 100,000 people had been affected by floods in the mighty Brahmaputra River and its tributaries, which flow through the state before entering neighboring Bangladesh.

"About 50,000 of those people have been displaced while the rest are continuing to stay in their houses as they have not been damaged by the floods," a state official told Reuters.

He said the rains had abated on Friday and river levels had fallen since then.

Nearly 100,000 Bangladeshis have fled their homes after floodwaters from neighboring India inundated bordering northern and southeastern districts, officials said on Saturday.

Floods are a regular feature across eastern India during the monsoon season that begins in June and lasts through September.

Nearly 60 people were killed and thousands evacuated in the western Indian state of Gujarat late last month after four days of storms and torrential monsoon rains.