Heavy rain, flood kills 100 in Bangladesh

Dhaka.At least 100 people have died and 250,000 left stranded by flash floods and landslides in Bangladesh set off by the heaviest rain in years, police and officials said on Wednesday.

Divisional commissioner of Chittagong division Sirajul Haque Khokon told that most of the victims were asleep when the huge chunks of mud buried them alive while some 20 people were still missing. A military spokesman in Dhaka said army troops joined the rescue campaigns along with fire brigade rescuers as several more people were feared to be trapped under tonnes of rubble at the scenes of landslides caused by incessant rains for the last three days.

Army, police and fire brigade personnel were helping in rescue efforts. Weather officials said more rain was expected over the next few days. Hundreds of homes have been washed away, while authorities have moved many families from shanty housing and told others to leave quickly.

Television footages showed rescuers searching through the thick mud for survivors amid incessant rains that triggered the disaster. Witnesses said rescue efforts were hampered as communications have been largely snapped because of flash floods and mudslides. Civil aviation officials said inclement weather forced them to suspend local and foreign flight operations at the Shah Amanat International Airport after rainwater submerged its runways. Railway officials said gushing rain waters from hills collapsed a major railway bridge on the outskirts of the city cutting off the port city’s train links with capital Dhaka and northeastern Sylhet region

Flooding also hit districts northwest of the capital Dhaka. The downpours lashed the borders with Myanmar and India, with the weather office recording 463 mm (18.2 inches) in Chittagong over the past 24 hours.

“We are having the worst rainfall in many years,” said Jainul Bari, district commissioner for Cox’s Bazar.