Destruction, debris mar Bangladesh mudslide rescue; 140 dead

Officials would not say whether there were people still missing, even as the death toll doubled overnight and it was reported that more districts were hit by landslips.

An aerial view showing the town half-submerged in floodwaters following landslips triggered by heavy rain in Khagrachari, Bangladesh.

Rescuers struggled on Wednesday to reach villages hit by massive landslips that have killed at least 140 people while also burying roads and cutting power in southeastern Bangladesh, officials said.

To clear paths for rescue workers, villagers joined firefighters and soldiers in cutting fallen trees and clearing mud and debris unleashed by the landslips on Tuesday in five hilly districts. But rescuers have been unable to get heavy machinery to the remote areas to help dig through the debris, military spokesman Rezaul Karim said.

“We are using speedboat to reach some of the affected spots. It is almost impossible to reach many of the affected places by road,” said Shah Kamal, secretary of the Ministry of Disaster Management.

Officials would not say whether there were people still missing, even as the death toll doubled overnight and it was reported that more districts were hit by landslips.

Some villagers were taking refuge in government shelters, but officials could not say how many. With cellphone services and power cut off in the region, information was slow to trickle out.

Rescuers search amid the mud after a landslip in Bandarban, Bangladesh on Tuesday. Heavy rains triggered landslides that killed dozens in southeast Bangladesh, officials said Tuesday, as police and soldiers struggled to reach the remote districts with aid.

One villager described living through a landslip that killed her children as they slept early Tuesday, according to the newspaper Prothom Aloo.

Swapan Barua said he was trying to clear rainwater from his thatched-roof home when huge chunks of mud swept through, burying the three children in their beds, according to the newspaper.

So far, the worst hit areas were in remote Rangamati district, where mostly tribal villagers live in small communities near a lake surrounded by hills. Officials reported that 103 dead and at least 5,000 homes destroyed or damaged in that district.

Another 28 were killed in the coastal Chittagong district, six died in Bandarban, two in Cox’s Bazar and one in Khagrachhari.

The delta nation of Bangladesh is frequently hit by strong storms, torrential rains, flooding and landslips. But experts said this week’s tragedy was also the result of uncontrolled denuding and soil harvesting in hills above, where villagers had set up unplanned settlements.

Many people in hilly regions ignore authorities’ calls to avoid constructing homes on slopes.