Dhaka (AFP) - Heavy monsoon rains have killed at least 35 people in southeast Bangladesh, most of them buried under landslides, authorities said Tuesday.

Police warned that the death toll would likely rise as emergency workers reached remote parts of the affected area, where telephone and transport links had been cut.

"The recovery work is still going on," the head of the Department of Disaster Management Reaz Ahmed told AFP.

Most of the deaths occurred in two districts, Rangamati and Bandarban, which the meteorological office said had been pounded by heavy rains since early Monday.

Bazlur Rashid, a weather official, told AFP Rangamati had been pounded by 343 millimetres (13.5 inches) of rain on Monday.

"It is still going on today," he said.

Heavy monsoon rains also pounded the capital Dhaka and Chittagong, a major port city, disrupting traffic movement for hours.

The latest disaster came after Cyclone Mora smashed into Bangladesh's southeast, killing at least eight people and damaging tens of thousands of homes.

One senior police officer said four soldiers were among the casualties in Rangamati, where a number of tribal communities have been waging a two decades-long insurgency.</s>Scores of people have been killed in landslides and flooding after heavy monsoon rains battered southeast Bangladesh, police and medical officers said.

The death toll climbed to 134 on Tuesday, according to local officials.

Many of the victims were from tribal communities in the remote hill district of Rangamati, close to the Indian border, where 98 people were killed when mudslides buried their homes.

"The recovery work is still going on. The death toll could rise as many areas still remained cut off," the head of the Department of Disaster Management Reaz Ahmed told AFP news agency.

Ahmed said disaster response teams had been deployed to the affected areas to reinforce recovery work.

Seven people, including three children, were killed in the hilly town of Bandarban, after their homes were buried in mud on Monday night, according to police officer Rafiq Ullah.

"Some of them were sleeping in their homes on hillsides when the landslides occurred," district police chief Sayed Tariqul Hasan said.

Another 30 of the casualties were in the neighbouring district of Chittagong.

"This particular mudslide tragedy is one of the worst in recent years for Bangladesh," Al Jazeera's Tanvir Chowdhury, reporting from the capital, Dhaka, said.

READ MORE: Cyclone Mora batters Bangladesh, displacing 500,000

The latest disaster came weeks after Cyclone Mora smashed into Bangladesh's southeast, killing at least eight people and damaging tens of thousands of homes.

Monsoon rains and deforestation in Bangladesh's southern hill districts frequently trigger deadly landslides.

"Experts think the government could do much more to prevent the loss of life by evacuating people living in the hilly areas during the monsoon season," said Chowdhury.

Heavy rains also pounded the capital and the port city of Chittagong in the district of the same name, which experienced 222mm of rain, disrupting traffic for hours.

Among the victims were four soldiers who had been sent to clear roads in Rangamati district after an earlier landslide.

Thousands of troops are stationed in Rangamati, where a tribal insurgency raged for two decades, and which still suffers sporadic violence.

"The soldiers were sent to clear roads hit by landslide in Manikchhari town when they themselves buried by a second landslide," armed forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Rashidul Hassan said.

Bangladesh experienced heavy monsoon rains throughout Monday because of the influence of a depression formed in the Bay of Bengal.

The Dhaka Met office said Tuesday morning it had recorded 343mm of rainfall in Rangamati over the course of 24 hours.</s>Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption Rescue efforts are being hampered by bad weather

Heavy monsoon rain has triggered landslides in south-east Bangladesh, with officials reporting at least 107 people killed, including five soldiers.

A spokesman for the Rangamati district administration said at least 60 people were killed in a series of landslides there alone.

Rescue operations are being hampered by bad weather.

Telecommunication links and electricity have been cut off, and some communities cannot be contacted.

"We have not been able to reach many of the affected places," Reaz Ahmed, head of the Department of Disaster Management, told AFP news agency.

"Once the rains are over, we'll get a full picture of the damage and get the recovery work in full swing," he said.

Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption Bangladesh has been hit by heavy seasonal rains in recent days

In Rangamati district, a hilly area close to the Indian border, landslides buried residents' houses.

"Some of them were sleeping in their houses on hillsides when the landslides occurred," district police chief Sayed Tariqul Hasan told AFP.

Image copyright EPA Image caption Rangamati hill district is one of the worst affected areas

The soldiers who died had been clearing a road in Rangamati of an earlier landslide when another one hit, a military spokesman told AFP.

Traffic in the capital Dhaka and Chittagong, Bangladesh's major port city, has also been disrupted by the torrential rains.

Last month, at least eight people were killed and thousands of homes were destroyed after Cyclone Mora smashed into Bangladesh's south-east. Up to a million people were evacuated.

Landslides caused by monsoons often occur in the southern hills in Bangladesh. In 2007, about 130 people were killed by a landslide in Chittagong.</s>At least 134 people were killed in Bangladesh when a series landslides triggered by heavy rain buried hillside homes, officials said on Wednesday.

DHAKA: At least 134 people were killed in Bangladesh when a series landslides triggered by heavy rain buried hillside homes, officials said on Wednesday.

Densely populated Bangladesh is battered by storms, floods and landslides every rainy season.

The landslides hit three hilly districts in the southeast early on Tuesday, killing 98 people in Rangamati, 30 in Chittagong and six in Bandarban, said Reaz Ahmed, head of the department of disaster management.

The death toll could rise further as rescuers search for bodies and many people are still missing, he told Reuters.

"Rescue operations are being hampered by bad weather while authorities are still struggling to reach some remote areas," Ahmed said.

The dead include four soldiers who had joined the rescue operation in Rangamati when another landslide occurred, he said.

The latest fatalities came weeks after Cyclone Mora lashed Bangladesh's southeast, killing at least seven people and damaging tens of thousands of homes.

In 2007, about 130 people were killed in a landslide in Chittagong in the southeast.</s>DHAKA: Landslides triggered by heavy rain buried hillside homes in Bangladesh on Tuesday killing at least 43 people with dozens missing, officials said.

The landslides it hilly districts in the southeast, killing 10 people in one village, eight in another and seven in a third, said police official Rafiq Ullah.

The death toll could go up as rescuers were searching for bodies and dozens of people were missing, he said.

Densely populated Bangladesh is battered by storms, floods and landslides every rainy season.

The latest fatalities came weeks after Cyclone Mora lashed Bangladesh's southeast, killing at least seven people and damaging tens of thousands of homes.

In 2007, about 130 people were killed in a landslide in Chittagong in the southeast.</s>CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh: Heavy monsoon rains and landslides have killed at least 134 people in southeast Bangladesh, burying many in their homes as they slept, authorities said on Tuesday (Jun 13).

Three young children from the same family were among those killed in the disaster, which comes just weeks after a cyclone battered the region and destroyed camps housing thousands of Rohingya refugees.

Police warned the death toll would likely rise as emergency workers reached remote parts of the Chittagong Hills, where telephone and transport links had been cut.

Manzurul Mannan, the government administrator of the worst-hit Rangamati district, said at least 98 people were killed in the hilly region alone. "The death toll might rise," Mannan told AFP.



At least 30 people were killed in neighbouring Chittagong and another six in Bandarban, officials told AFP, adding about 15 people were missing, feared buried under chunks of mud.

Many of the victims were from poor tribal communities in the remote hill district of Rangamati, close to the Indian border, where mudslides buried hundreds of homes.

One woman described the ground sliding from beneath their family home in the dead of night, sending them fleeing to a house next door.

"A few other families also took shelter there, but just after dawn a section of hill fell on the house. Six people are still missing," Khatiza Begum told local news website Bangla Tribune at Rangamati hospital.

District police chief Sayed Tariqul Hasan said most of the landslides happened before dawn on Tuesday. "Some of them were sleeping in their houses on hillsides when the landslides occurred," he said.

Police and local authorities ordered the evacuation of thousands of people living in slums at the base of hills in the neighbouring district of Chittagong, where 30 people have been confirmed dead.

At least 126 people were killed in that district when a massive landslide buried a village a decade ago.

In the latest incident six people were killed in the nearby district of Bandarban, among them three children buried by a landslide as they slept in their home.

Authorities have opened 18 shelters in the worst-hit hill districts, where 4,500 people have been evacuated, disaster management and relief minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya told reporters.

Head of disaster management department Reaz Ahmed said disaster response teams had been deployed but had not yet been able to reach all the affected areas.

"Once the rains are over, we'll get a full picture of the damage and get the recovery work in full swing," he added.

The monsoon rains came two weeks after Cyclone Mora smashed into Bangladesh's southeast, killing at least eight people and damaging tens of thousands of homes.

Rohingya leader Mohammad Anam said the latest rains had further worsened conditions in camps that were badly hit by the cyclone. "We're living in constant fear of landslides," he told AFP.

Around 300,000 Rohingya, a mainly Muslim stateless ethnic minority, are living in camps in southeastern Bangladesh after fleeing persecution in Myanmar.

Heavy monsoon rains also pounded the capital Dhaka and the port city of Chittagong in the district of the same name, disrupting traffic for hours and flooding key roads and business districts.

A ferry sank in the River Buriganga in Dhaka on Monday evening with an estimated 100 passengers aboard, police said, adding all the passengers had managed to swim ashore.

Among the victims in Rangamati district were at least four soldiers who had been sent to clear roads after an earlier landslide.

Thousands of troops are stationed in Rangamati, where a tribal insurgency raged for two decades, and which still suffers sporadic violence.

"The soldiers were sent to clear roads hit by landslide in Manikchhari town when they were themselves buried by a second landslide," armed forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Rashidul Hassan told AFP.

"They fell 30 feet (nine metres) from the main road," he said, adding one soldier was missing and 10 injured, five critically.</s>At least 134 people have been killed in Bangladesh after landslides triggered by heavy rain buried hillside homes, officials say.

Densely populated Bangladesh is battered by storms, floods and landslides every rainy season.

The landslides hit three hilly districts in the south-east, killing 98 people in Rangamati, 30 in Chittagong and six in Bandarban, said Reaz Ahmed, head of the department of disaster management.

The death toll could rise further as rescuers search for bodies and many people are still missing, he said.

"Rescue operations are being hampered by bad weather while authorities are still struggling to reach some remote areas," Ahmed said.

The dead include four soldiers who had joined the rescue operation, said a spokesperson for the control room of the Disaster Management and Relief Ministry in Dhaka.

The latest deaths came weeks after Cyclone Mora lashed Bangladesh's south-east, killing at least seven people and damaging tens of thousands of homes.

In 2007, about 130 people were killed in a landslide in Chittagong in the south-east.</s>DHAKA: Landslides triggered by heavy rain buried hillside homes in Bangladesh on Tuesday killing at least 25 people and injuring several, officials said.

The landslides it hilly districts in the southeast, killing 10 people in one village, eight in another and seven in a third, said police official Rafiq Ullah.

The death toll could go up as rescuers were searching for bodies, he said.

Densely populated Bangladesh is battered by storms, floods and landslides every rainy season.

In 2007, about 130 people were killed in a landslide in Chittagong in the southeast.</s>Death toll could rise, warn officials, after houses in southeast Bangladesh were buried by landslides.

At least 46 people have been killed in landslides and flooding after heavy monsoon rains in southeast Bangladesh, police and medical officers said.

Many of the victims were from tribal communities in the remote hill district of Rangamati, close to the Indian border, where 24 people were killed when mudslides buried their homes.

"The recovery work is still going on. The death toll could rise as many areas still remained cut off," the head of the Department of Disaster Management Reaz Ahmed told AFP news agency.

Ahmed said disaster response teams had been deployed to the affected areas to reinforce recovery work. 

 

"We have not been able to reach many of the affected places. Once the rains are over, we'll get a full picture of the damage and get the recovery work in full swing," he said.

Seven people, including three children, were killed in the hilly town of Bandarban, after their homes were buried in mud on Monday night, according to police officer Rafiq Ullah.

"Some of them were sleeping in their homes on hillsides when the landslides occurred," district police chief Sayed Tariqul Hasan said.

Another 16 of the casualties were in the neighbouring district of Chittagong.

The latest disaster came weeks after Cyclone Mora smashed into Bangladesh's southeast, killing at least eight people and damaging tens of thousands of homes.

Heavy monsoon rains also pounded the capital Dhaka and the port city of Chittagong in the district of the same name, which experienced 222mm of rain, disrupting traffic for hours.

Among the victims were four soldiers who had been sent to clear roads in Rangamati district after an earlier landslide.

Thousands of troops are stationed in Rangamati, where a tribal insurgency raged for two decades, and which still suffers sporadic violence.

"The soldiers were sent to clear roads hit by landslide in Manikchhari town when they themselves buried by a second landslide," armed forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Rashidul Hassan said.

Bangladesh experienced heavy monsoon rains throughout Monday because of the influence of a depression formed in the Bay of Bengal.

The Dhaka Met office said Tuesday morning it had recorded 343mm of rainfall in Rangamati over the course of 24 hours.</s>Dhaka : The death toll from the devastating rain-triggered landslides in Bangladesh’s three south-eastern districts has risen to 134 as rescuers retrieved more bodies including those of two Army officers, officials said on Wednesday.

Since Monday morning, heavy rains swept through the districts of Chittagong, Bandarban and Rangamati and triggered huge landslides early on Tuesday, burying many in their homes as they slept, reports Xinhua news agency.

Four members of the Bangladesh Army including two of its officers were killed in a landslide in Rangamati. Lt Col Md Rashidul Hasan told Xinhua that 10 Army men were also injured in the incident while another remained missing. –
At least 134 people are dead and dozens are missing in landslides caused by days of heavy monsoonal rain in Bangladesh.