Death toll in Bangladesh landslides rises to 163

Dhaka: The death toll today rose to 163 in Bangladesh's landslides as five more persons, including three children, were killed due to incessant rains in two districts.

The fresh landslides occurred in the wee hours in Khagrachhari and Moulvibazar districts.

Three children died in Bangladesh's south-eastern Khagrachhari district, Dhaka Tribune reported.

"The incident took place due to the torrential rain early today. The death toll might increase," a police official was quoted as saying by daily.

A woman and her daughter were killed in a landslide in north-eastern Moulvibazar district this morning, the report said.

Afia Begum, 50, from Moddhodimai village and her daughter Fahmida Begum, 13, were killed after their house was crushed under a landslide mass from a hillock, a local official said.

Locals recovered the dead bodies of the duo removing the landslide mass.

It has been raining hard in the district since yesterday submerging most of the roads.

With the addition of these two new landslides, the death toll from landslides in the country has risen to 163.

Earlier last week, the southeastern Rangmathi, Chittagong and Bandarban hill districts were worst affected regions in Bangladesh where incessant monsoon rains have triggered a series a landslides and caused water-logging in many parts, besides submerging a number of villages.

The disaster-hit Rangmathi district, which borders Mizoram and Tripura, is the worst hit among other district sand has alone seen 116 deaths.

The death toll from the landslide stands at 32 in Chittagong, six in Bandarban, two in Cox's Bazar and one in Khagrachhari, according to the disaster management ministry.

Densely populated Bangladesh is battered by storms, floods and landslides every rainy season but this year's rain is the worst since 2007 when landslides killed 127 people in the port city.

Experts and environmentalists attribute the latest spell of landslides to illegal hill cuts exposing the sandy hills to quick erosion during protracted rains.

The landslides triggered by the monsoon rains came two weeks after Cyclone Mora hit Bangladesh, leaving eight people dead and damaging hundreds of homes.