12 Killed in Bangladesh landslide

At least 12 people were killed and more feared missing on Friday after three days of heavy rain triggered landslides near a slum in Bangladesh's port city of Chittagong, police said. The victims were buried by mud while they were sleeping in their tin-roofed shanty houses in the southeastern city's Lalkhan Bazaar slum, which lies at the bottom of a hill, local police chief Abu Zafar Mohammad Omar Faruq told AFP. "We told them to evacuate Thursday after weather officials warned the heavy rains might cause landslides in the hilly areas. Some refused to leave their homes, they were buried by mud as they were sleeping this morning," he said. "So far we have recovered 12 bodies including eight women and a child. We fear some bodies are still under mud," he said, adding that army, navy and fire officials had been deployed to conduct a rescue operation. At least seven shanty houses in the slum were buried by the landslides and up to five more people are believed to be missing, said Chittagong fire chief Ruhul Amin. "But the slum residents could not say exactly how many people were living in each of the houses," he added. Heavy monsoon rains of around 132 millimetres (5.2 inches) in 24 hours triggered the landslides, police chief Faruq said, adding that hundreds of people living in tin shacks on the slopes had been moved to safer locations. In June 2007, landslides triggered by the heaviest rain in Chittagong in recent years killed at least 130 people.