Bangladesh cyclone kills at least 1,100

A CYCLONE that slammed into the coast with 240km/h winds killed at least 1,100 people, isolating remote towns and villages swamped by a storm surge or hemmed in by piles of debris, aid workers and a Bangladeshi news agency said yesterday.

Tropical Cyclone Sidr roared across the country’s south-western coast on Thursday with driving rain and high waves, levelling thousands of flimsy huts and forcing the evacuation of 650,000 villagers, officials said.

The United News of Bangladesh agency said reporters deployed across the devastated region made their own count in each affected district and reached a toll of 1,100.

The government, which earlier put the death toll at 242, has acknowledged its trouble keeping count — with power and phone lines down in most remote areas — and said it expected the official number to rise significantly.

The cyclone destroyed homes, crops and fish farms in 15 coastal districts.

Relief workers struggled to ferry food and medicine to hundreds of thousands of survivors, officials and aid workers said.