Cyclone hits southeast Bangladesh

CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh (AFP) — A tropical cyclone hit southeast Bangladesh late Friday, forcing authorities to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people from coastal areas.

Cyclone Bijli made landfall near the town of Cox's Bazar at about 7:30 pm (1300 GMT), Shah Alam, deputy director of the Meteorology Department, told AFP.

The storm was expected to last for up to six hours along the 300-kilometre (186-mile) southeastern coast, he said.

"The cyclone has made landfall and it should pass by 1:30 Friday morning. The cyclone weakened before hitting land and wind speeds are currently 70 to 90 kilometres."

Hundreds of thousands of people were earlier evacuated from coast areas, with 500,000 taking cover in 500 cyclone shelters in the Cox's Bazar district alone.

"We have told everyone living in low-lying areas to head to their nearest cyclone shelter," said Mohammad Manzoor Alam Bhuiyan, administrator of one affected district.

"We have arranged dry food and clean drinking water. There is a medical team on standby," he added.

Boats have been brought to shore and fishermen were urged not to sail. Flights to and from Cox's Bazar and Chittagong were also suspended.

Bangladesh frequently experiences tropical storms and cyclones during the monsoon season. Bijli is the first for the 2009 rainy season, which is just beginning in the South Asian nation.

More than 3,500 people were killed during Cyclone Sidr in November 2007, which packed winds of up to 240-kilometers an hour and was the second-strongest storm recorded in Bangladesh.

In 1970, some half a million people died when a cyclone hit the impoverished country, while an estimated 138,000 people died as a result of a cyclonic surge in 1991.

The lower death tolls in 1991 and 2007 were attributed to a network of cyclone shelters and a warning system introduced after the 1970 disaster.

A police spokesman said it was too early to calculate damage and although windspeeds were considered moderate, some of the islands on the coast were exposed and vulnerable.

"We are unlikely to have a clear idea of the damage until daylight on Saturday morning," the officer said.

In neighbouring Myanmar, the military-run government's meteorological service urged residents of the country's western coastal region to stay away from the sea until Bijli had passed.

"All vessels... in Myanmar waters along the Rakhine coast are advised to take precautionary measures by navigating away from the area exposed to the threat from rough seas and strong winds until 18 April 2009," it said.

In April last year Myanmar was hit by Cyclone Nargis, which left an estimated 138,000 people dead or missing and affected some 2.4 million people, mostly in its southwest delta region.