DHAKA/ASSAM, India—At least 25 people were killed by lightning or landslides over the weekend in Bangladesh while millions were left marooned or homeless in low-lying northeastern parts hit by the worst monsoon floods in the country’s recent history, officials said.
In the neighboring Indian state of Assam, at least 17 people were killed during the wave of flooding, which began this month, police officials said on June 19.
Many of Bangladesh’s rivers have risen to dangerous levels, and the runoff from heavy rain from across Indian mountains exacerbated the situation, said Arifuzzaman Bhuiyan, head of the state-run Flood Forecasting and Warning Center.
Thousands of policemen and army personnel have been deployed to parts of the country to help search-and-rescue efforts.
About 105,000 people have been evacuated so far, but police officials estimated that over four million are still stranded.
Syed Rafiqul Haque, a former lawmaker and ruling party politician in Sunamganj district, said the country would face a humanitarian crisis if proper rescue operations were not conducted.
“Almost the entire Sylhet-Sunamganj belt is under water, and millions of people are stranded,” he said, adding that victims had no food or drinking water, and that communication networks were down.
Regional officials said about 3.1 million people were displaced, 200,000 of whom were staying in government-run makeshift shelters on raised embankments or on other highlands.
Lightning in parts of Bangladesh killed at least 21 people on June 17, including three children aged between 12 and 14.
Bangladesh and India have experienced increasing extreme weather in recent years, causing large-scale damage.
Last month, a pre-monsoon flash flood, triggered by a rush of water from upstream in India’s northeastern states, hit Bangladesh’s northern and northeastern regions, destroying crops and damaging homes and roads. The country was just starting to recover when fresh rain flooded the same areas again this week.
By Ruma Paul & Zarir Hussain
