Cyclone toll in Bangladesh and India rises to 65

A powerful cyclone that smashed into low-lying Bangladesh and India killed at least 65 people, including in torrential rain storms in its wake, state government officials and media said Wednesday.

Cyclone Remal, which made landfall on Sunday evening with fierce gales and crashing waves, moved slowly inland causing floods and triggering landslides.

Azizur Rahman, director of the state-run Bangladesh Meteorological Department, said the cyclone was “one of longest in the country’s history”, blaming climate change for the shift.

In Bangladesh, which bore the brunt of the cyclone, at least 17 people died, according to the disaster management office and police.

Some drowned. Others were killed by debris, falling trees or electrocuted by falling power lines.

In India, 48 people died, government and media reports said, updating an earlier toll of 21 from the country.

The majority were killed in northeastern Mizoram state, where 28 died.

That included 14 workers crushed in a quarry which collapsed Tuesday in the rain storm, Mizoram’s government said in a statement.

Ten people died in West Bengal state, senior government official Sumit Gupta said Wednesday.

At least 10 other people died in the states of Assam, Nagaland and Meghalaya, according to reports cited by the Hindustan Times.

Cyclones hit Bangladesh and India each year, but the number of superstorms hitting the densely populated coast has increased sharply, with scientists saying climate change is fuelling more storms.

However, better forecasting and more effective evacuation planning have dramatically reduced death tolls.