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Storms torment Bangladesh, China

Women and children cry after losing five members of their family to a mudslide in Chittagong, 216km southeast of Dhaka, yesterday. PHOTO: AP

The number of people killed in storms and heavy monsoon rains that triggered landslides in southeastern Bangladesh has risen to 105, an official said yesterday. as torrential rain resumed, threatening more inundation.

The worst-hit area was a congested shantytown in the hilly port of Chittagong, where large chunks of hill collapsed and buried dozens of bamboo and straw shacks.

The death toll climbed after emergency teams pulled 15 bodies from homes that had been buried under the mud in the port city of Chittagong.

"Rescue work is still going on with more than 1,000 troops, police and fire brigade officers joining the operation," said Major Moeen, who uses one name, of the army's incident control room.

"I am afraid the toll may climb further," he said.

Damaged roads were hampering rescue efforts in the city of 4 million, 220km southeast of the capital, Dhaka.

Of the 101 fatalities recorded so far, 10 died in lightning strikes in four districts across the country.

About 22cm of rain fell in just three hours early on Monday, the local weather bureau said.

Government and charity agencies distributed food and water to about 1,000 people left homeless by the calamity, the area's government administrator Mukhlesur Rahman said. Emergency workers had managed to rescue more than 50 injured people from the rubble.

Many residents said the rainfall and flooding were among the worst in memory.

``I have never seen so much water in my life,'' said Mofizur Rahman, 75, who has lived near the city's main hospital, Chittagong Medical College Hospital, for 45 years.

Meanwhile, China braced for more torrential rain yesterday as a wild season of floods, house collapses and rockslides across the south and east have already killed 71 people with 13 missing.

Downpours and strong winds were likely to strike coastal Zhejiang and Fujian provinces and Hainan Island, the China Meteorological Administration said.

Flooding and mudslides have so far wrought economic damage of about 3.4 billion yuan (US$436 million), with 56,000 homes and 57,600 hectares of crops destroyed, Xinhua news agency said, citing an official from the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

In past days, downpours, mudslides and floods have hit the provinces of Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Jiangxi and Fujian.

The weather has prompted evacuation of 643,000 residents, the China Daily reported.

In worst-hit Meizhou municipality in northeast Guangdong, more than 7,000 residents were evacuated after a 40m crack appeared in a dam, the local New Express reported.

Police, troops and officials rushed to reinforce the dam wall with rocks and sandbags.
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