DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A tornado ripped through villages flooded by heavy monsoon rains in northern Bangladesh, injuring at least 25 people, officials said Monday.
The tornado struck Sunday in Sirajganj district, 65 miles north of the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, the Meteorological Department said. It destroyed dozens of mud-and-thatch houses already weakened by flooding.
Sunday was the first day in a week that it didn’t rain in the northern region and the flooded Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers began receding, the Flood Forecasting and Warning Center said. But eight more people drowned in swirling flood waters in the northern districts of Rangpur and Bogra and eastern Comilla districts Sunday, raising the death toll to 90 from more than a week of flooding.
Up to 8 million people have been affected the flooding — driven from their homes or marooned by the high waters.
Relief Ministry officials said at least 100 people suffered dysentery and diarrhea caused by polluted drinking water, but no deaths were reported. The ministry has sent water-purifying tablets to the flooded areas.
The floods have destroyed crops over thousands of acres, breached embankments and damaged roads and rail tracks in 27 of Bangladesh’s 64 districts.
Bangladesh, a low-lying delta nation of 120 million people, is buffeted by floods and cyclones that kill hundreds of people every year.
The country’s worst floods in recent memory occurred in 1987 and 1988, when more than 1,500 people were killed.