DHAKA, Nov 15: A powerful cyclone packing extreme winds and torrential rain smashed into Bangladesh’s southwestern coast on Thursday, wiping out homes and trees in what officials described as the worst storm in years.

The eye of cyclone Sidr, visible in satellite images as a colossal swirling white mass racing north from the Bay of Bengal, hit land in an impoverished coastal area near Bangladesh’s border with India.

“The cyclone has battered Bangladeshi coastal areas. The velocity of the wind in that area is 220 to 240 kilometres an hour. (This) is a violent storm,” said Samarendra Karmakar, the head of the Bangladeshi Meteorological Department. The storm matched one in 1991 that sparked a tidal wave that killed some 138,000 people.—AFP