Tropical storm kills 11 in Bangladesh

Dhaka, May 2 (DPA) At least 11 people were killed and scores injured in Bangladesh as the season's first northwester swept many parts of the country Saturday, officials said.

Most of the casualties were caused by the collapse of their thatched houses, and lightning. The storm damaged crops on a vast tract of land in the north and central part of the country.

Five people died in villages of centre-northern Jamalpur district while four died in Mymenshingh and two in eastern Comilla districts.

'The rescuers retrieved five bodies from remote villages of Melandaha and Madarganj sub-districts. Two of them died as lightning struck them while three others were killed due to collapse of their houses on them,' Kamal Krishna Bhattacharyya, the district administrator at Jamalpur, told DPA by telephone.

Many thatched houses collapsed, trees were uprooted and electric connections were snapped by the rainstorm, said Bhattacharyya who visited the storm-hit localities.

In Mymensingh four people were killed and two injured as lightning struck them while two others died in Comilla. The injured were undergoing treatment at different hospitals, police said.

The rainstorm came after more than a week of heatwave hit Bangladesh, leaving at least eight people dead from heatstroke and heat-related ailments. The scorching heat also caused a breakout of water-borne diseases across the country.