Cyclone kills 68 people in eastern India
Posted April 14, 2010 6:47 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CALCUTTA, India — A cyclone packing speeds of more than 160 kilometres an hour demolished tens of thousands of mud huts in villages in northeastern India, killing at least 68 people, officials said Wednesday.
The cyclone struck Tuesday night in northeastern parts of West Bengal and Bihar states, uprooted trees and snapping telephone and electricity lines, West Bengal Civil Defence Minister Srikumar Mukherjee said.
Hundreds of people were injured.
The cyclone demolished nearly 50,000 mud huts in West Bengal and more than 1,000 in Bihar, officials said.
The worst-hit villages in West Bengal state were Hematabad, Raiganj and Kiran Dighi, where police and rescue teams have recovered 31 bodies, Mukherjee told The Associated Press.
Another 37 people were killed in the northeastern Bihar districts of Araria, Kishenganj and Purnea,
top Bihar state official Nitish Kumar told reporters.
The cyclone moved at a speed of more than 160 kilometres an hour, said N. Shravan Kumar, a Bihar state official.
A prison wall collapsed in Bihar’s Araria district, forcing authorities to shift more than 600 inmates to another prison, Kumar said.
