The death toll from landslides and heavy flooding that swept western Burma’s Arakan state earlier this week has risen to 46, Burmese state media reported today.
Twenty-eight people living in mud and bamboo huts close to the Bangladeshi border died from landslides. In Maungdaw township, landslides killed 18 people and injured four, the New Light of Myanmar said.
Houses and roads were destroyed after record rain of nearly 14 inches hit the impoverished state. Across the border in Bangladesh’s Teknaf area, estimates of the death toll have reached 58, with thousands left homeless.
AFP reported on Tuesday that around 15,000 people in the Teknaf area were thought to have been affected by the flooding, the worst to have hit southeastern Bangladesh in years.