Cyclone Mora claims 7 lives in Bangladesh

Cyclone Mora left at least seven people dead and damaged nearly 60,000 houses, displacing around 56,000 families when it hit Bangladesh a day ago, officials said on Wednesday.

Four people were killed and 60 were injured on Tuesday in the Cox Bazar district, while two others were killed in Rangamati and one in Bhola district, Efe news quoted Bangladesh's Disaster Management Department spokesperson Naznin Shamina as saying.

According to Shamina, the cyclone caused substantial damage to private property with at least 19,768 houses seriously damaged and 38,112 partially, particularly in Cox Bazar and Chittagong districts.

Two million people were evacuated before the cyclone made landfall, out of which 500,000 were moved to 3,800 cyclone shelters.

Bangladesh's Cyclone Preparedness programme head had earlier told EFE that 56,000 volunteers had helped in the evacuation in 18 coastal districts of the country.

Around 33,000 Rohingya refugees, who live in two camps in Bangladesh bordering Myanmar in the southeast where the cyclone had made landfall, were among the worst affected.

--IANS

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