Landslides from heavy rains in Bangladesh leave 42 dead

Heavy monsoon rains have killed at least 35 people in southeast Bangladesh, most of them buried under landslides, authorities said Tuesday.Police warned that the death toll would likely rise as emergency workers reached remote parts of the affected area, where telephone and transport links had been cut.

"The recovery work is still going on," the head of the Department of Disaster Management Reaz Ahmed said. Most of the deaths occurred in two districts, Rangamati and Bandarban, which the meteorological office said had been pounded by heavy rains since early Monday.

Bazlur Rashid, a weather official, said Rangamati had been pounded by 343 millimetres (13.5 inches) of rain on Monday. "It is still going on today," he said. Heavy monsoon rains also pounded the capital Dhaka and Chittagong, a major port city, disrupting traffic movement for hours.

The latest disaster came after Cyclone Mora smashed into Bangladesh's southeast, killing at least eight people and damaging tens of thousands of homes. One senior police officer said four soldiers were among the casualties in Rangamati, where a number of tribal communities have been waging a two decades-long insurgency