Dhaka: A series of landslides triggered by torrential rains overnight killed at last 53 people in southeastern sea resort town of Cox’s Bazar and nearby Bandarban hill district with officials saying salvage campaign was underway as over 12 people were still missing.
Officials and witnesses said of the dead 49 people including six army soldiers lost their lives under tonnes of mud at different areas of Cox’s Bazar as their shanties and a makeshift military camp while the four others were buried alive in Bandarban as earthen chunks smashed their homes at the bottom of hills.
Cox’s Bazar’s deputy commissioner or administrative chief Giadsuddin Ahmed told Gulf News that the torrential rains also inundated most part of the scenic beach town and nearby sub-districts causing flash floods and disrupting the rescue operations after the disasters.
“The mudslides struck Ukhia and Teknaf sub-districts as a result of two days of heavy rainfalls . . . . while most victims were asleep,” a senior police official told Gulf News by phone.
The flash flood obstructed movement of rescue workers to the affected areas as army troops, paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) and Red Crescent rescuers were called out to join the salvage campaign, he said.
He added that the six army personnel died instantly as the landslide smashed their makeshift camp at Himchhari area near the Cox’s Bazar sea beach as army engineering core was engaged to construct a marine drive road from Cox’s Bazar to Teknaf, a frontier town linking Bangladesh with Myanmar.
An army spokesman said two of the bodies of the army soldiers were retrieved from under the mud while efforts were underway to recover the four others.
In a related development some 50 fishing boats were reported sank near the coastlines in Bay of Bengal due to inclement weather as they went for fishing undermining the warning signal number 3 in scale of 10.
Officials said no casualties were reported, however, yet from the capsizes as most of the fishermen were expectedly rescued by other such boats nearby but hundreds of bamboo shacks were washed away by the storm and flashfloods or surges in the coastlines.
Landslides caused by heavy downpours appeared to be a growing concern particularly in southeastern region while environmental watchdogs were virtually screaming for years against hill cuts to develop infrastructures defying rules as an expert study said over 100 hills disappeared while hundreds others were partially destructed in recent years to cause frequent mudslides.
Bangladesh witnessed its worst landslide in recent decades on June 13, 2007 when 123 people were buried alive under tones of mud rolled out from the hills on the dwelling houses built at hill slopes at the southeastern port city of Chittagong.
