Storm kills 84, razes 67,000 homes in India, Bangladesh

A violent tropical storm killed at least 84 people and devastated more than 67,000 homes as it swept across eastern India and Bangladesh overnight, officials said Wednesday.

Winds of up to 120 kilometres (75 miles) an hour tore across northeastern India and neighbouring Bangladesh around midnight, ravaging mud and tin-roofed homes, uprooting trees and bringing down electricity lines.

Officials in the states of West Bengal, Bihar and Assam said a total of 82 people had been killed. Two others were reported dead in Bangladesh, including a police officer.

"The storm has left a trail of destruction everywhere," West Bengal minister of state for civil defence Srikumar Mukherjee told local television from the scene.

The number of people killed and houses damaged could rise further, disaster officials said, as relief was rushed to the affected areas, where roads were blocked by fallen trees and phone lines were down.

The storm was an extreme form of what is locally known as a "nor'wester" -- a weather pattern that develops over the Bay of Bengal during the hot months of the year, the West Bengal weather office said.

Nor'westers normally bring refreshing winds that blow across the low-lying region in March and April and lower temperatures, Gokul Chandra Debnath, the office's director, told AFP.

Mohammad Ibrahim, a 40-year-old resident of Hematabad village in West Bengal, told AFP by phone it was the worst storm he had ever seen.

"God has saved me, but taken away my home and everything," he said, adding that he been injured by a falling tree.

Survivor Abhijit Karmokar told local television that many people had been injured or killed by flying objects, particularly tin roofs commonly used as a building material in the impoverished area.

"Some of these tin roofs just sliced through people.... It was total darkness.... We stood no chance," he said.

Homeless people were being shifted to local schools and government offices.

In Bihar, Disaster Management Department official Vayas Mishra told AFP that at least 5,000 homes had been razed and 40 people had been killed in the impoverished Purnia, Araria and Kishanganj districts.

At least 50,000 homes were destroyed and 38 people died in northern West Bengal, four people perished and 500 homes were razed in Assam, and 12,000 homes were flattened in Bangladesh, officials said.

"Unconfirmed reports reaching here suggest that the number of casualties will go up," Mishra added.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar made an aerial inspection of the disaster area and announced compensation of 150,000 rupees (2,400 dollars) for the families of the dead.

In Bangladesh, northern Rangpur was the worst hit. District administrator B.M. Enamul Haq said two people had died, including a police officer crushed under a collapsed wall.

The storm demolished a police barracks, leaving dozens injured, two of whom remain in critical condition.

"The storm has damaged more than 11,000 mud, tin and concrete homes in Rangpur district alone," he added. "It was a huge storm and we are still assessing the damage."

The cyclone came amid unseasonably high temperatures across much of northern India, where the mercury is already above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in many areas.

The Press Trust of India reported that the number of heat-related deaths had risen to 42 in the eastern state of Orissa since the beginning of the month, after another five people died on Tuesday.

The United News of India reported another death on Tuesday in the western state of Gujarat.

The weather department on Tuesday said nine of India's 29 states were sizzling in a heatwave.