DHAKA, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- Seven people died in Bangladesh due to the impact of cyclone Midhili, which has lashed the South Asian country with heavy rain and strong wind.
The cyclone left a trail of destruction in the coastal Bangladeshi districts after making landfall on Friday afternoon.
Of the deceased, four members of the same family died after a wall of their mud house collapsed amid heavy rains in Cox's Bazar district, some 400 km southeast of the capital Dhaka, in the wee hours of Friday, according to local official sources.
Three more deaths caused by tree-related incidents were reported from the southeastern Chattogram and central Tangail districts.
The cyclone damaged crops in coastal districts where tens of thousands of people were evacuated to storm shelters.
Power supply snapped in coastal areas in Bangladesh on Friday after fierce winds uprooted electricity poles and left wires tangled with logs and twigs.
An estimated 300 fishermen are believed to have been forced to take shelter in the Sundarbans, one of the world's largest mangrove forests, in the country's southwest as the cyclone made landfall faster than predicted, not allowing the fishermen enough time to return to safe shelters.
"A total of 25 trawlers carrying 300 fishermen have not returned home," Golam Mostofa Chowdhury, president of the Barguna District Fishing Trawlers Owners Association, was quoted as saying in a report by local English newspaper New Age on Saturday. ■
