Bangladesh mudslides kill scores

CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh – Mudslides caused by monsoon rains buried bamboo and straw shacks in shantytowns and collapsed brick houses in southeastern Bangladesh Monday, killing at least 67 people. Eleven more died when they were struck by lightning, rescue officials and witnesses said.

The hilly port city of Chittagong was hardest hit by the heavy rains, officials said. Nearly 8 1/2 inches of rain fell in just three hours early Monday, submerging the downtown in about 4 feet of water, the local weather service and witnesses said. At least 67 died in the city.

The lightning strikes killed 11 people in the neighboring districts of Cox’s Bazar, Noakhali and Brahmmanbaria, the food and disaster management ministry said.

The worst-hit area was a congested shantytown in Chittagong, where large chunks of hill collapsed and buried dozens of bamboo and straw shacks. The area is near a military zone and army rescuers pulled out at least 35 bodies from the debris, city official Shahidul Islam said.

“I have never seen so much water in my life,” said Mofizur Rahman, 75, who lives near the city’s main hospital.

Another 15 bodies were pulled from the remnants of a hilly slum on land belonging to Bangladesh Railways in another part of the city, said Nasir Ahmed, a fire brigade officer. Six others died in another hillside slum near a power station, he said, and five members of a family perished when the walls of their brick home collapsed in heavy rain on the Chittagong University campus.

Four others, including a young mother and her toddler, were killed when their house collapsed. A policeman was electrocuted when he stepped on a severed electrical wire.