DHAKA, Bangladesh – The death toll in Bangladesh and India rose to at least 95 and nearly 1,000 remained missing Thursday after storms capsized boats, toppled houses and washed away roads, news reports and officials said.
Rescuers recovered 30 more bodies overnight, pushing the death toll in Bangladesh to 49 after sudden storms hit the tropical nation's southern coast.
Nearly 1,000 people, including a naval commander, were missing in both countries, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to media.
In India, the storms that started late Tuesday killed at least 46 people and injured hundreds of others, Indian officials and media reports said.
In the southeastern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, torrential rains and floods killed at least 31 people over two days, G.T. Priyadarshini, a relief official, said Wednesday. Most people died when their houses collapsed or when they were swept away by flood waters.
Around 5,000 people have been evacuated to safer areas and many villages were cut off after roads and railway tracks were submerged when rivers in the state overflowed their banks.
At least 15 others were killed and 300 injured in India's West Bengal state, Press Trust of India news agency reported.
The storm left a trail of destruction in two districts in West Bengal state, toppling thousands of mud huts, trees, and electricity and telephone poles, the agency reported, quoting State Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta.
The death toll was expected to rise as reports from interior areas had yet to come in, the report said.
In the Bay of Bengal, a Bangladeshi navy ship partially overturned at Akram Point in Khulna during the storms, leaving its commanding officer missing, but some 40 others aboard the ship are safe, the United News of Bangladesh reported.
The coast guard deployed helicopters to search for Lt. Comm. Firoz Kabir, the report said, adding that search and rescue operations were being hampered by the continuing bad weather.
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