Landslides' death toll in southeastern Bangladesh rises to 48
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The death toll from rain-triggered landslides in southeastern Bangladesh rose to 48 Tuesday, with dozens of people including 6 army personnel are still missing, officials said.
Heavy rains swept through Bangladesh's two southeastern districts -- Cox's Bazaar and Bandarban -- and triggered landslides early Tuesday.
"Rescuers in my district have so far recovered 44 bodies," Nibhas Chandra Majhi, police chief of southeastern Cox's Bazaar district, some 391 km away from the capital Dhaka, told Xinhua over mobile phone.
He said the identities of the deceased could not be immediately known.
Abdul Hannan, duty officer of Cox's Bazaar Police Control room, said at least 25-30 people including six army personnel of a military camp in the district have remained missing following the landslides.
However, Rafiqul Islam, an official from southeastern Bandarban district Police, some 316 km away from Dhaka, said four members including a women and two children of a family were killed due to landslide.
Police, with the help of local people, retrieved the bodies from under the mud, he said.
Landslides are frequent in Bangladesh's hilly areas during the heavy monsoon that usually runs from June to September.
In June 2007, some 123 people were killed in a devastating landslide in Bangladesh's southeastern Chittagong district, some 242 km away of Dhaka.
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