Rain and landslides kill dozens in Bangladesh

DHAKA // Heavy monsoon rains killed at least 48 people in south- east Bangladesh, most of them buried under landslides, authorities said yesterday.

Police said the death toll would probably rise as emergency workers reached remote parts of the affected area, where phone and transport links had been cut.

“The recovery work is still going on,” said Reaz Ahmed, head of the department of disaster management.

“The death toll could rise as many areas still remain cut off.”

Mr Ahmed said disaster response teams had been sent to the affected areas to reinforce recovery work. “We have not been able to reach many of the affected places. Once the rains are over, we’ll get a full picture of the damage and get the recovery work in full swing,” he said. Many of the victims were from tribal communities in the remote hill district of Rangamati, close to the Indian border, where 24 people were killed when mudslides buried their homes.

“Some of them were sleeping in their houses on hillsides when the landslides occurred,” said district police chief Sayed Tariqul Hasan.

Six were killed in the nearby district of Bandarban, among them three children, siblings who were buried by a landslide as they slept in their home.

Another 16 of the casualties were in the neighbouring district of Chittagong, where a decade ago at least 126 people were killed when a landslide buried a village. The latest disaster came weeks after Cyclone Mora smashed into Bangladesh’s south-east, killing at least eight people and damaging tens of thousands of homes. Monsoon rains in Bangladesh’s southern hill districts frequently trigger landslides.

Heavy rains also pounded the capital Dhaka and the port city of Chittagong, which received 222 millimetres of rain, disrupting traffic for hours.