August 19, 2008	Tuesday	Sha’aban 16, 1429

DHAKA: At least 14 people were killed, a dozen injured and 10 others feared trapped under the rubble of collapsed houses in a landslide in Bangladesh’s Chittagong port city and Cox’s Bazar early on Monday, officials said.

“We are efforting to rescue the injured and those under the debris,”said Chittagong district administrator Mohammad Ashraf Shameem. Bangladesh army personnel, police and fire fighters were trying to dig people out from under tonnes of mud and said the death toll could rise. The landslide, triggered by heavy rain, occurred at the city’s Motijahrna hillside slum area.

In Cox’s Bazar beach district, 90 km from Chittagong, three members of a family were buried alive as their mud-hut collapsed after torrential rains, police said.

The bodies were retrieved by police and volunteers, they said.

Rainwater flooded a highway linking Chittagong to Bandarban hill district, and also the streets of Cox’s Bazar, witnesses said.

The Chittagong weather office recorded nearly 125 mm of rainfall in 12 hours to Monday morning.—Reuters