Bangladesh landslide deaths rise to 150
Rescuers pull many from the mud but toll expected to rise
CHITTAGONG, BANGLADESH // Rescue workers battled yesterday to reach victims of landslides described as the worst in Bangladesh’s history, as the death toll from the disaster rose to 152.
Villagers in some of the worsthit areas used shovels to try to dig bodies out of the mud that engulfed their settlements as they slept.
Authorities said hundreds of homes were buried by mud and rubble sent cascading down hillsides after monsoon rains swept the south- east of the country. The region received 343 millimetres of rain in just 24 hours.
Disaster management department chief Reaz Ahmed said the landslides were the worst in the country’s history and said that the death toll would rise further. Khodeza Begum narrowly survived the disaster, which destroyed her home and killed 11 people in her village. She told of how she emerged from her home just after dawn on Tuesday to see the mountainside collapsing in front of her.
“As I came out, I saw a huge slab of earth rolling down from the hill,” she said.
“Instantly I got all my relatives out of their homes. My house was buried under mud within moments. I have never seen a disaster like this in my life.”
Firefighters in the worst- hit district of Rangamati recovered six more bodies yesterday after clearing mud with shovels and water pumps.
“The bodies were three to five feet deep in mud. We pumped water at force to clear the mud,” said Didarul Alam, fire services chief for Rangamati district.
The firefighters had pulled 18 people out from under the mud on Tuesday, but did not have the manpower to reach all the affected areas. Mr Alam said his team had been able to reach more areas yesterday after reinforcements arrived from neighbouring Chittagong.
Authorities have opened 18 shelters in the worst-hit hill districts, where 4,500 people have been rescued, a minister said. Among the victims were two fishermen who drowned off the coast of Cox’s Bazar after their boat capsized.
Other trawlers and their sailors were still missing.
As rain pounded Cox’s Bazar for a third day, police confirmed that a father and daughter had been killed when a landslide buried their home. The monsoon rains came two weeks after Cyclone Mora swept over south- east Bangladesh , killing at least eight people and damaging tens of thousands of homes.
South Asia is frequently hit by flooding and landslides in the summer with the arrival of the annual monsoon rains.
Extreme weather in the far north- eastern Indian state of Mizoram along the border with Bangladesh killed 12 people. “Many people are reported missing,” said N Chakhai, the state’s head of disaster management.
Experts in Bangladesh said unplanned development in vulnerable areas was making the annual rain more dangerous.
“There is a backlash effect. These things accelerate the pace of the disaster and make it more fatal,” said SM A Fayez, an environmental science professor at Dhaka University. Rescue work was being hampered by heavy rains, which have cut transport links to some remote areas. The army said thousands of troops stationed in the affected districts as part of attempts to quell a long-running tribal insurgency had joined the rescue work.