Mudslides, floods kill 134 in Bangladesh

The death toll from monsoon storms rose to 134 on Wednesday after rescuers found more bodies overnight in southeastern Bangladesh, where the heaviest rains in years have triggered mudslides and floods, officials said.

The bodies were pulled from rubble in the worst-hit city of Chittagong, city official Nur Sulaiman said. Most of the deaths have occurred in the hilly port city, where rescuers were searching through debris for survivors, he said.

In neighboring Comilla district, rain-swollen Gumti River breached an embankment on Wednesday, flooding dozens of villages and forcing several thousand villagers to flee their homes, CSB television station reported.

At least 75,000 people have been marooned in Comilla, a farming district 88 kilometres east of capital Dhaka, the station reported.