The outer bands of Cyclone Mahasen struck the southern coast of Bangladesh today, lashing remote fishing villages with heavy rain and fierce winds and forcing the evacuation of more than a million people.

Raging floodwaters fed by monsoon rains have inundated more than 2,000 villages, killed at least 27 people and left hundreds of thousands more marooned in north east India.

Army divers and rescue workers pulled 103 bodies out of a river after a packed ferry boat capsized in heavy winds and rain in remote north east India, an official said.

Garret Campbell tells Denise Hall about the success of his organisation’s project sending Irish teachers to remote parts of India