Landslides kill 100 in Myanmar and Bangladesh

Floods and landslides triggered by incessant monsoon rains in Myanmar and Bangladesh kill more than 100 people.

YANGON, MYANMAR // Floods and landslides triggered by incessant monsoon rains in Myanmar and Bangladesh have killed more than 100 people, officials and reports said today. At least 46 people died on Tuesday in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state, according to the state-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper. Rescue workers are pulling residents out of the worst affected areas and trying to open a key road damaged in the torrents. Bridges in the region have also been washed out. State television reported yesterday that 28 of the people were killed when houses built on mountains collapsed in landslides in Buthidaung, 575 kilometres northwest of Yangon, and 18 others died in Maundaw, south of Buthidaung. Meanwhile, across the border, Bangladesh recovered three more bodies overnight in the southeastern Cox's Bazar district, raising the death toll from powerful landslides to 56, said local magistrate Mohammad Jasim Uddin. Rains in the area have now stopped, he said. Flooding is common in both countries during the monsoon season that typically starts in late May. Cyclone Nargis struck both countries in May 2008, devastating large swaths of Myanmar where it left more than 140,000 people dead or missing. * AP