Bangladesh mudslide casualties up

Hills surround Chittagong's shanty towns

The number of people killed in mudslides and floods in the southern Bangladeshi port of Chittagong has to risen to at least 118, officials say.

They say that dozens of people could still be missing underneath large amounts of earth which came off the hillsides and buried their shacks.

Officials say that the heaviest rain in recent years has also flooded parts of the capital, Dhaka, and other regions.

They say up to five million people are marooned or threatened by the floods.

Havoc

"Although the floodwater has receded from most areas, others are still inundated, making it difficult for the diggers," one rescuer told the Reuters news agency.

Most of Bangladesh has been affected by flooding

Officials say that two days of unusually heavy rain at the start of the annual monsoon season caused havoc across the country.

Correspondents say that life is slowly limping back to normal in Chittagong, and that the rain has now stopped for the first time in three days.

Workers are now trying to restore the city's power and water supplies, and remove sludge from the roads.

Officials say that hundreds of people who moved from vulnerable areas to take shelter on concrete school buildings are now beginning to return home.

But concern remains for hundreds of villagers living in Comilla district, east of Dhaka, after the Gumti River breached an embankment and flooded their homes.

Meanwhile, police in the Indian city of Calcutta say that heavy rains and lightning strikes have killed at least 13 people and paralysed everyday life.

The Calcutta weather office said the city had experienced 133mm of rain in the last 12 hours.

Large parts of the city are waist to knee-deep in water, causing huge traffic jams and disruption to trains and flights.