Lethal storms batter South Asia

[P.K.]

Lethal storms batter South Asia

More than 40 people have been killed and hundreds are unaccounted for in fierce storms and severe flooding in the Bay of Bengal since the weekend.

Officials in Bangladesh believe at least 1,000 fishermen may be missing.

Indian authorities say hundreds are missing and dozens were killed in Andhra Pradesh state.

Thousands of people there are homeless after monsoon rains swelled rivers and inundated villages, disrupting roads and trains, as well as power supplies.

Alarm bells

The weekend's storms brought heavy rains and caused the sea to rise up to 3m (10ft) in coastal areas along the Bay of Bengal.

Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy said the situation in three Indian districts in the path of the Godavari river - Khammam and East and West Godavari - was alarming.

In Orissa state in eastern India, 11,000 people were evacuated from low-lying areas. State Revenue Minister Manmohan Samal told the BBC that over 25,000 hectares of rice crop was destroyed by the storm.

In Bangladesh, 16 fishermen are thought to have drowned when their trawlers sank in stormy weather.

Up to 1,000 more are missing according to local officials and the media were reporting that anxious families were waiting along the coastlines for their relatives to return.

A government official told the Associated Press news agency that there were not enough boats to conduct a fully fledged search for the missing.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4266580.stm