The assistance will be distributed through international aid agencies to provide emergency food aid, water and sanitation, and emergency relief items.

"When I see the images of devastation by the floods in Sri Lanka, I feel that it is the EU's duty to make it possible for thousands of people to receive emergency relief," said European aid commissioner Kristalina Georgieva.

The number of people killed in Sri Lanka's monsoon flooding and mudslides has risen to 27 with more than a million still displaced by the devastating disaster, officials said Friday.

Floods and mudslides that have ravaged Sri Lanka's east for days have submerged rice paddies and hampered food distribution, officials said Friday, leaving many villagers to scrounge for corn and yams in nearby fields.

Days of heavy rain have swamped Eastern Province, affecting more than a million people and forcing 360,000 from their homes. The government has estimated the cost of damage at $500 million.

The Disaster Management Center said 27 people have died in the floods, including four whose deaths were reported Friday. Twelve more are missing.

Thirty percent of the farm land in the rice-growing region submerged, the Agriculture Ministry said. Meanwhile, some villages are marooned, with little or no food aid coming in.

In the eastern Batticaloa district, 300 families have been living on corn and yams, said Velayutham Thevanayagam, a village official.

Concerns about the spread of disease, including typhoid, are also growing as the floods caused sewage lines to overflow. Health officials have also ordered pregnant women and young children hospitalized to shield them from waterborne diseases.