At least 144 people were killed in landslides triggered due to heavy rains in Bangladesh.
Heavy rains since Monday morning swept through Bangladesh's three southeastern districts – Chittagong, Bandarban and Rangamati – and triggered huge landslides early on Tuesday and damaged hundreds of homes, Xinhua news agency reported.
Ragamati district was the worst-affected, where 76 people have died, including four military personnel, who were on duty to remove the rubble to clear a major highway.
An official in Chittagong earlier said, “The military, police and fire service personnel have joined rescue efforts since early Tuesday.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted regarding the tragedy:
The local media reports said that over 100 people were injured, many of them critically, while searches were underway for more bodies, even as many remote areas were difficult to reach due to inclement weather.
The director general of the Bangladesh Disaster Management Department (DMD), Reaz Ahmed, was quoted by AFP as saying:
The recovery work is still going on. The death toll could rise as many areas still remained cut off.
“Most of the casualties were caused by landslides, but some died of electrocution, drowning, and collapse of walls,” said an official at the southeastern port city of Chittagong.
Influenced by a depression in the Bay of Bengal, rains have lashed the three districts since Monday, reported Xinhua News Agency.
Dhaka's flood forecasting centre said the water level in all the major rivers is rising and some were already flowing above the danger mark.
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(With inputs from IANS and PTI)
(Source: AFP)
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