As many as 16 people were killed in Bangladesh and India as cyclonic storm Remal, the first major cyclone of the year, lashed their coastlines and cut power to millions.
Bangladesh’s junior minister for disaster management and relief, Mohibur Rahman, said that 10 people were killed in the official count so far. “At least 10 people were killed in the cyclone,” Rahman told reporters.
Officials and journalists in coastal areas said that of those deceased, some drowned while others were crushed when their houses collapsed.
The deceased in Bangladesh include three people in the Bhola and Barisal districts, and one each in Satkhira, Khulna, Chittagong and Patuakhali districts.
In India’s West Bengal state, four people were electrocuted, authorities said, taking the death toll in the state to six.
Both nations moved nearly a million people to storm shelters, about 800,000 in Bangladesh and roughly 110,000 in India, authorities said.
‘Remal’ weakened into a cyclonic storm on Monday morning, sustaining wind speeds of 80-90 kilometres per hour, following landfall around midnight of Sunday, the Met Department said.