Cyclone death toll 24 in Bangladesh, India

Khulna, Bangladesh: The death toll from a cyclone that barrelled into the coasts of Bangladesh and India has risen to 24, authorities said on Monday, as the two nations assess the scale of devastation wreaked by the powerful storm. Bangladesh carried out one of its biggest ever evacuation drives, moving some 2.1 million people to cyclone shelters specially built to minimise casualties from such storms, which can claim thousands of victims. Cyclone Bulbul, packing winds of up to 120 kilometres per hour when it hit late on Saturday, killed 12 people in Bangladesh —11 from falling trees — and 12 in India’s West Bengal and Odisha states. Five others remain missing after a fishing trawler sank in squally weather near Bangladesh’s southern island of Bhola, district administrator Masud Alam Siddiqui said. The cyclone weakened as it tracked inland.  — AFP