Five die as cyclone hits refugee camps in Bangladesh

CYCLONE Mora battered Bangladesh yesterday, killing five people, damaging thousands of homes and ripping through a camp housing thousands of Rohingya refugees who had fled violence in Myanmar.

Authorities said they evacuated nearly 600,000 people from vulnerable areas before the storm hit the coastal district of Cox’s Bazar, bringing winds of up to 135 kilometres per hour (84mph).

Disaster management authorities said five people had been killed, four of them crushed by falling trees in the area.

Authorities in Cox’s Bazar said at least 17,000 homes, excluding the Rohingya shelters, had been damaged in the district, with many low-lying villages inundated by a storm surge reaching four feet (1.3 metres).

Some of the worst damage was at the camps housing the 300,000 Rohingya refugees living in Cox’s Bazar, many of them in flimsy huts.