At least 62 people were killed as cyclone "Aila" ravaged the southern coastlines of Bangladesh, where tidal surges inundated vast tracts of land and breached coastal embankments, officials said today.
The full extent of devastation in the storm, which packed windspeed of up to 100 kilometres per hour to slam into the Bangladesh coasts yesterday, was slowly emerging as the authorities were assessing the damage.
Disaster management officials here said they so far confirmed 62 deaths while unofficial reports said the toll could be as high as 90 with recovery of more bodies from remote areas. The cyclone left marks of its scourge across the entire stretch of the coastlines.
Meanwhile, the Red Crescent Society said some 3,38,780 people in eight districts were affected by the cyclone while a total of 1,00,000 people were forced to move into makeshift shelters under a massive evacuation campaign by their volunteers and law enforcement agencies.
"The cyclone killed maximum 28 people in (southwestern) Satkhira, while eight deaths were reported from Noakhali, seven in Patuakhali, six in Laxmipur and five in Khulna," state-run news agency BSS reported quoting the officer-in-charge of disaster management control room in Dhaka.
