25 dead after cyclone hits Bangladesh, India

Bangladesh launched a major rescue and relief operation after a cyclone slammed into the coast killing at least 15 people and 10 in neighbouring India, officials said.

Most of the casualties in Bangladesh were reported to be children who had drowned as Cyclone Aila triggered a tidal surge of four metres (13 feet) when it made landfall on Monday.

Some 330,000 people were marooned and military and civil defence teams were helping to deliver food, water and emergency shelters, the government in Dhaka said.

"The situation is very grim. These people are homeless. Their homes have been destroyed," area chief Kazi Atiur Rahman told AFP via telephone from the coastal district of Khulna district, close to the border with India.

"We've lost at least 50,000 bamboo and mud-built houses which have been washed away by tidal water."

Rahman said the tidal surge of sea water meant demand for fresh drinking supplies was urgent.

In neighbouring Koyra district, 20,000 houses had been destroyed by strong winds of up to 90 kilometres (56 miles) an hour, local official Arif Pasha said.

"People have taken shelter wherever they could. District authorities have sent army, navy and coastguard teams to rescue some of the people trapped by the water," he said.

Bangladesh police and officials in affected districts told AFP by phone that at least 15 people were dead, but warned the toll could rise as rescue teams were yet to reach some of the worst-hit coastal villages.

In India's West Bengal, the cyclone hit the crowded state capital of Kolkata, bringing down trees, electricity towers and smashing cars.

Five people died in the city, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said.

The low-lying region in the north of the Bay of Bengal frequently experiences tropical storms and cyclones during the monsoon season.

In 2007, more than 3,500 people were killed when Cyclone Sidr hit the same districts.