THE bath toll from a tornado that tore through northern Bangladesh rose to at least 500, with hundreds still missing, a news paper and officials said yesterday.
The government run daily Dainik Bangia said that in addition to at least 500 dead, some 50,000 people were injured by winds of up to 93 m.p.h. that swept through Tangail district, 74 miles from the capital, Dhaka, late on Monday.
Relief workers, struggling to retrieve bodies from under collapsed houses and twisted trees said yesterday the death toll from one of the worst storms to hit this poverty stricken nation in years might rise to about 800.
Officials said it would take several days to get a full picture of casualties and economic losses.
"You see, the situation is nobody has escaped the wrath. You can't interview the injured for details now," said another official.
Bangladesh, struggling to emerge from a long running political crisis, is due to hold general elections on June 12th.
The official BSS news agency said the government had mobilised all its resources to deal with the catastrophe. Six army medical teams hand been sent to help paramedics assisting the critically injured, it said.
Hundreds of volunteers had reached the affected areas by early yesterday to distribute relief goods and build makeshift shelters for the survivors. Fifty tonnes of wheat, 30 tonnes of rice, clothes and house building materials had been sent in, officials said.
Bangladesh, less than twice the size of Ireland, has a population of 124 million. Its worst storm, in 1991, killed more than 138,000 people along the coast and on islands in the Bay of Bengal.
. Concern yesterday allocated £100,000 for immediate emergency work in Bangladesh and appealed for donations. The aid agency has moved rescue teams into Tangail, the area devastated by the tornado.