At least 100 dead, quarter million stranded in Bangladesh due to monsoon rains and landslides

Three days of heavy monsoon rains – causing flash floods and landslides – have left at least 100 people dead.

Dawn reported that at least a quarter million were also left stranded.

According to the BBC, some of those killed were also struck by lightning or crushed under collapsed walls.

Flights in and out of the now-flooded city of Chittagong Bangladesh’s second-biggest – have been cancelled, while the collapse of a railway bridge led to most rail links being suspended.

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According to the Agence France Presse, Chittagong port received 40 centimetres rain in a single 12-hour period yesterday.

According to Reuters, at least 15 people died in and around the port city, 30 people were killed in neighboring Bandarban district, and two-dozen perished in Cox’s Bazar coastal area, near the border with Myanmar.

Officials told the Associated Press that many of those killed were women and children, with the death toll likely to rise as search and rescue operations – hampered by torrential rainfall and now assisted by the army – continue.

Many of those stranded lived in makeshift settlements at the foot of the Chittagong Hill Tracts – an area notorious for landslides.

Government officials claimed that it warned those living in often illegal settlements to evacuate the area days for the rain, reported the Independent.

Monsoon floods are common in low-lying, densely populated Bangladesh, a nation of 160 million people. 

More heavy rains are expected over the coming days.