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Cyclone Sidr toll to top 4 000
29/11/2007 14:48 - (SA)
Dhaka - The final toll from Cyclone Sidr was likely to be more than 4 000 as hundreds of fishermen are still missing in Bangladesh, the army said on Thursday.
Lieutenant Colonel Faruque Hussain, giving updated figures, said 3 256 bodies had been found and that 880 people were missing and feared dead.
Officials had earlier confirmed more than 3 400 deaths with 1 700 missing.
"Most of the missing persons are fishermen. We fear that most of them are dead as we did not receive any information of them taking shelter," he said.
Sidr struck on November 15, smashing into the coast before cutting a swathe through the southern and central districts.
About 360 000 people have been left homeless with about 4.7 million people affected.
The government is working with agencies and donor countries to deliver relief to thousands of survivors and has received pledges of more than 470 million dollars in aid.
The storm was the second most powerful cyclone to hit the disaster-prone country since records began.
Half a million people died in a 1970 cyclone, while a cyclonic tidal wave in 1991 killed about 138 000.
An early-warning system and a network of cyclone shelters introduced after the 1970 disaster is credited with saving many lives both this time and in 1991.
- AFP
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