Agence France Presse

Dhaka, March 21:

At least 35 people were killed and over 700 injured by a tornado that flattened as many as 3,000 houses in 15 villages in northern Bangladesh, police said today. The twister accompanied by a hailstorm and wind gusts of 100 kilometres per hour lashed the area yesterday, police chief Bhanu Lal Das said. Over 8,000 people were left homeless in the Sadullahpur sub-district and in adjoining Sundarganj. “We are struggling to cope with hundreds of injured persons. Over 300 sought treatment in the 100-bed district hospital and 200 each in Sadullahpur and Sunderganj hospitals,” district civil surgeon Dr Habibur Rahman said. “The death figures could go up as we sent 70 critically injured persons to the regional hospital at Rangpur.” The storm damaged crops, uprooted trees and electricity poles and cut off communications to the 15 villages in one of the poorest parts of the country.

Police were clearing roads of hundreds of fallen trees and debris so that rescue teams could reach Sadullahpur, where some 5,000 people were left homeless in three villages in which every single house was flattened. “We suspect more bodies are buried beneath the debris of the flattened houses,” Das said, adding that an ongoing downpour was hampering the search. Over 200 injured people were rushed to various hospitals and clinics in Sadullahpur district, but hundreds of other injured were awaiting transport to ferry them to various medical facilities. “There is hardly anyone who is not injured. No one is around to take the seriously injured persons to the hospitals or clear debris to recover bodies from the flattened houses,” said Abdul Hakim, police officer in charge of Sadullahpur.

The death toll was increasing by the hour, he added. A junior government minister visited the affected villages early today to oversee relief operations. “We are distributing biscuits and giving tin sheets to the affected families to build homes,” said Asadul Habib Dulu, state minister for food and disaster management. Survivors reached by telephone said the storm had left a trail of devastation in a 20 square kilometre area, where people were homeless and hungry. “In the affected villages the homeless people have been without food since last night,” said one survivor, Asaduzzaman Mamum. Some relief had reached the villages but this was too little, Mamun added. He said eight people were killed when the chimney of a brick kiln collapsed on them at Sadullahpur, adding: “There is no one to bury them.”