Eighty-Six Fishermen Missing in Bangladesh After Cyclone

DHAKA, June 13 (Reuters) – Three bodies were recovered on Tuesday from the Bay of Bengal, where 86 fishermen remain missing after a cyclonic storm in the coastal district of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, police said.

The storm also wrecked makeshift camps at Kutupalong, Balukhali and Ledha that housed Rohingya refugees, more than 350,000 of whom have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar. No one from the camps was reported missing.

The 86 fishermen went missing after the storm sank boats in the Bay of Bengal on Monday. Twenty-four fishermen were rescued.

At least 500 houses were washed away by the tidal surge at Kutubdia Island of Cox’s Bazaar on Tuesday, and hundreds of trees were uprooted, according to Khondakar Mohammad Rezaul Karim, a senior government official of the area.

The latest disaster comes in the wake of Cyclone Mora, which battered the same region barely two weeks ago. Mora brought high winds, heavy rains and tidal surges left more than 50,000 homes damaged or destroyed in the districts of Cox’s Bazar, Chittagong and Bandarban and affected around 3.3 million people.

Early this month, Bangladesh’s navy rescued more than 63 from the Bay of Bengal after cyclone that killed several people and left thousands homeless. (Reporting By Serajul Quadir and Nurul Islam from Cox’s Bazar, editing by Larry King)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2017.

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