Bangladesh cyclone kills 250; towns under water

A cyclone killed more than 250 people in Bangladesh, triggering a 15-feet (5-metre) high water surge that devastated three coastal towns with a combined population of 700,000, officials said on Friday.

"The death count is rising fast as we get more information from the affected districts," an official at the food and disaster ministry said.

"It may go much higher."

The towns of Patuakhali, Barguna and Jhalakathi were inundated by the surge on Thursday night, cutting off communication links. A government official in Dhaka said there was no immediate information about casualties from the area.

Elsewhere, officials said more than 200 deaths have already been confirmed while hundreds more were injured or missing following the cyclone, which struck overnight packing winds of 250 kph (155 mph).

Storms batter the poor south Asian country every year and a severe cyclone killed more than half a million people in 1970, while another in 1991 killed 143,000.

The latest storm triggered water surges in many of the affected districts, washing away hundreds of thatched homes, destroying crops and killing livestock.

Hundreds of fishing boats caught in the cyclone failed to return to shore, while trees and power poles were uprooted, disrupting communication and electricity supplies.

"We have been virtually blacked out all over the country," said a disaster management official in southern Mongla, another of the worst affected areas.

Television news reports said more than 100 fishing boats in the Bay of Bengal had failed to return to shore despite repeated storm warnings given over the radio. Many boats, however, may have been small vessels without such equipment.

The storm blew past India's eastern coast without causing much damage, police and weather officials there said on Friday.

"There will be some rain and the sky will remain overcast for sometime," said G.C. Debnath, a senior weather department official.