Bangladesh: Cyclone Sitrang lashes country claiming 24 lives

Cyclone Sitrang has claimed at least 24 lives and has forced evacuation of around a million people in Bangladesh, according to officials in the country.

Cyclones -- the equivalent of hurricanes in the Atlantic or typhoons in the Pacific -- are a regular menace but scientists say climate change is likely making them more intense and frequent.

Cyclone Sitrang made landfall in southern Bangladesh on Monday (October 24) but the authorities were able to evacuate about a million people to safety before the cyclone hit.

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Around 10 million people were without power in districts along the coast on Tuesday, while schools were shut across much of the country's south.

Government official Jebun Nahar, who was quoted by AFP, said that 16 people have died. The deaths have occurred mostly because of falling trees. Two people were killed when their boat sank in Jamuna river in the north of the country.

"We still have not got all the reports of damages," Nahar told AFP.

Eight people are missing from a dredging boat that sank during the storm late Monday night in the Bay of Bengal, near the country's largest industrial park at Mirsarai, regional fire department chief Abdullah Pasha said.

"Strong wind flipped the dredger and it sank instantly in the Bay of Bengal," he told AFP, adding that divers were searching for survivors.
People evacuated from low-lying regions such as remote islands and river banks were moved to thousands of multi-storey cyclone shelters, Disaster Management Ministry secretary Kamrul Ahsan told AFP.

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"They spent the night in cyclone shelters. And this morning many are heading back to their homes," he said.

Ahsan said nearly 10,000 homes were either "destroyed or damaged" in the storm and around 1,000 shrimp farms had been washed away in floods.

Officials said that police, in some cases, had to cajole villagers who were not ready to leave their homes.

Trees were uprooted as far away as the capital Dhaka, hundreds of kilometres from the storm's centre.

(With inputs from agencies)

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