Chittagong, Bangladesh - Torrential rains in Bangladesh
since the weekend have triggered landslides and flooding that have
left at least 98 people dead and up to 23 missing, officials in the
country's main port city said Tuesday.
The death toll from the tropical storms that began pounding the
Chittagong seaport and lush rice terraces in the five northeastern
districts from late Sunday rose to 98 as civil defence rescuers dug
out 31 more bodies since Monday from the rubble of two major
landslides.
Unofficial figures, however, put the death toll at over 100 in the
worst incident of mudslides from the low height hills dotting the
landscape of the port city.
The military-backed interim government in a country gripped by
political chaos recently declared the port city a disaster zone
deploying thousands of soldiers, paramilitary police and civilian
volunteers for rescue and search missions in hazardous conditions.
Port operations have remained suspended for the last 48 hours
because of heavy showers and gale winds battering the Bay of Bengal
coast.
Officials said the rain swept port city remained under knee deep
water while emergency workers used boats as transports.
Chittagong is located 275 kilometres south of the capital Dhaka.
'It is a national emergency and we must unite the nation to face
the calamity,' said Fakhruddin Ahmed, the executive head of the
caretaker regime.
Ahmed flew into the port city Tuesday to personally monitor the
rescue operation and the distribution of relief materials among the
400 people who survived the ordeal but were injured and made
homeless.
The annual Monsoon dumped heavy rains in five northeastern
districts in the Sylhet region touching off flash floods making about
50,000 people homeless, disaster management officials said.
The seasonal rains swelled the rivers Surma and the Khowai
threatening the existence of 300 villages along the unstable coast.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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