Bangladesh landslide death toll reaches 53

Rescuers today recovered four more bodies buried in mud after huge landslides in south-east Bangladesh, raising the death toll to 53.

The powerful mudslides, triggered by heavy rains, struck a coastal area yesterday, burying thatched homes and cutting off thousands in the southern coastal district of Cox’s Bazar and the nearby district of Bandarban.

At least 49 bodies were recovered on Tuesday, mostly from two areas in Cox’s Bazar, 185 miles south of the capital Dhaka, in a hilly and forested region near the border with Burma.

The bodies of three children – two boys and a girl – were found overnight, and a missing soldier killed by the slides was also pulled from the mud, said Mohammad Jasim Uddin, a magistrate in Cox’s Bazar.

Another five soldiers’ bodies were recovered on Tuesday. They were assigned to a makeshift camp that was buried by mud.

About 500 people left homeless after the disaster have taken refuge at five shelters in Cox’s Bazar’s Teknaf area, bordering Burma, said local official Shafik Mia.