Myanmar cyclone kills 140
2004-05-28 20:36
Bangkok - A cyclone that swept through western Myanmar last week left at least 140 people dead and about 18 000 people homeless, a UN agency said on Friday.
Unicef - the United Nation Children's Fund - said the May 19 storm, with winds of up to 170km/h, was the worst to hit the area since 1968.
The cyclone devastated Myanmar's Rakhine State, several hundred kilometres northwest of the capital, Yangon, Unicef said in statement issued by its Geneva headquarters.
It said it could not confirm the number of deaths. But the Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, another Geneva-based UN agency, said 140 people were killed and that seven were missing.
Some 18 000 people were rendered homeless by the storm, the two agencies said.
Myanmar's state-controlled media has not reported on the disaster. The military government often downplays bad news.
Tun Lwin, director of the state meteorological department, confirmed details of the storm, but declined to talk about casualties or damages, which he said were the responsibility of the Ministry of Social Welfare and Resettlement
Unicef said the storm formed over the Bay of Bengal and crossed Myanmar's southwest coast near the border with Bangladesh, causing tidal surges and flooding. Tun Lwin said the storm lasted from 11:30 until evening.
- AP