Mudslides bury scores

– Rescue workers were yesterday battling to reach remote areas of Bangladesh hit by landslides and heavy rains that have killed at least 137 people, with dozens more missing.

Authorities say hundreds of hillside homes were buried by landslides in the southeast of the country while people slept in the early hours of Tuesday.

The landslides were triggered by heavy monsoon rains, with 343mm of rain falling on Monday.

Firefighters in the worst-hit district of Rangamati said they had pulled 18 people out from

Chittagong

under the mud on Tuesday.

But hopes of finding more survivors were fading as the hours went by.

“People called us from several places saying people had been buried. But we did not have enough men to send,” said Didarul Alam, fire services chief for Rangamati district.

The monsoon rains came two weeks after Cyclone Mora smashed into Bangladesh’s southeast.

More than 200 people were killed in Sri Lanka last month when the monsoon triggered landslides. – AFP