Rescuers struggle to reach Bangladesh landslide victims
WORST IN NATION’S HISTORY: 150 people dead in landslides and heavy rains
DHAKA/GUWAHATI: Heavy rains have triggered a series of landslides and floods in Bangladesh and neighbouring northeast India, killing at least 156 people over two days, and officials warned on Wednesday the toll could rise.
Shah Kamal, the secretary of Bangladesh’s disaster ministry, said there had been no rain on Wednesday and rescue operations were in full swing.
“It is a great relief. Some areas in the district are still cut off but people are being moved through navy boats,” he said.
But weather officials in Bangladesh have forecast light to moderate showers accompanied by gusty or squally wind during the next 24 hours in places like Chittagong.
In the Indian states of Mizoram and Assam, which border Bangladesh, at least 11 people were killed as incessant rains flooded major cities.
Authorities in Mizoram retrieved nine bodies, but about seven people were still missing after landslides caused several homes to cave in, the state’s urban development minister said.
India was ready to support Bangladesh with search and rescue efforts if needed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office said in a statement.
Outside help might not be needed, however, two Bangladesh government officials said.
Rescue workers battled on Wednesday 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 say hundreds of homes were buried by mud and rubble sent cascading down hillsides after monsoon rains dumped 343 millimetres (13.5 inches) of water on the southeast of the country in just 24 hours. Disaster Management Department chief Reaz Ahmed said the landslides were the worst in the country’s history and warned the death toll would rise as rescuers reached cut-off areas. Khodeza Begum narrowly survived the disaster, which destroyed her home and killed 11 people in her village.
She told a local news website 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. Instantly I got all my relatives out of their homes,” she said. “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 on Wednesday after clearing mud with shovels and water pumps.
“The bodies were three to five feet deep in mud. We pumped water at a 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. Alam said his team had been able to reach more areas on Wednesday after 60 reinforcements arrived from neighbouring Chittagong.
— AGENCIES