Hundreds of thousands of people have taken refuge as Cyclone Mahasen hit Bangladesh and Myanmar. A CYCLONE has ripped into the Bangladeshi coast as hundreds of thousands of people hunkered down in evacuation shelters, including in a region of Myanmar torn by communal unrest. Two people died as Cyclone Mahasen hit Bangladesh's southern Patuakhali coast on Thursday, officials said, while heavy rains and strong winds also lashed neighbouring Myanmar's northwest coast, home to tens of thousands of displaced Muslim Rohingya. Weather officials said that Mahasen was likely to whip the heavily populated coastline stretching from Bangladesh's second city Chittagong to the Cox's Bazaar tourist region in the afternoon. But fears of widespread damage receded as Mahasen appeared to have lost some of its power after languishing over the Bay of Bengal for several days, and made landfall packing winds of up to 90km/h. "Cyclone Mahasen started crossing the Patuakhali coast at 9am Thursday," said Shamsuddun Ahmed, deputy director of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department. It is not a severe cyclone. It did not gain strength in the last part of its journey as it hit the coast. Provincial administrator Nurul Amin said two elderly people had been killed. Low-lying areas were submerged by a one-metre storm surge, less than earlier feared. "We're lucky that it hit the coast during low-tide," said Ahmed. About 800,000 people spent the night in more than 2000 cyclone shelters as well as schools and colleges along Bangladesh's long coastline. Of the total, 600,000 people alone were evacuated in the Chittagong region,said provincial administrator Mohammad Abdullah. "We have enough food, medicine and other facilities in these shelters," he said, adding that the armed forces are on standby. Mohammad Mehrajuddin, an elected local government head of southern Nijhum Dwip Island, said many villagers in his area did not move to cyclone shelters for fear their cattle would be stolen. There was a similar reluctance to move among the Muslim Rohingya across the border in Myanmar's Rakhine state, reflecting a deep mistrust of the security forces and local Buddhists after communal violence last year. State media in Myanmar said that by Wednesday 70,000 people had been evacuated from the camps and vulnerable local villages. Fifty-eight Rohingya were left missing after their boat capsized on Monday as they tried to escape the cyclone by sea to higher ground along the coast.