Terrifying pictures of Cyclone Amphan as it hits West Bengal

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Terrifying pictures of Cyclone Amphan as it hits West Bengal

Millions of people are struggling as the strongest cyclone in decades slammed into Bangladesh and eastern India, killing at least three and leaving a trail of devastation - Photogallery

Millions of people are struggling as the strongest cyclone in decades slammed into Bangladesh and eastern India, killing at least three and leaving a trail of devastation. Authorities scrambled to evacuate more than three million people from low-lying areas, but the task was complicated by the need to prevent the spread of coronavirus. As it made landfall, Cyclone Amphan tore through coastal villages, flattening mud houses, blowing off roofs, uprooting trees and laying waste to crop fields. In Bangladesh officials confirmed three deaths including a five year-old boy and a 75-year-old man, both hit by falling trees, and a cyclone emergency volunteer who drowned. Two other fatalities were reported by Indian media, including an infant crushed when the mud wall of the family's hut collapsed in heavy rain in Odisha state. Amphan is the first "super cyclone" to form over the Bay of Bengal since 1999, and packed winds gusting up to 185 kilometres (115) per hour. Forecasters also warned there could be storm surges of several metres. Such walls of water can cascade several kilometres inland and are often the main killers in major weather systems. Kolkata was battered by heavy rain and the muddy Hooghly river was rising under dark skies, while in the coastal resort of Digha, large waves were pounding the shore. "Scores of trees and electricity poles have been uprooted," a hotel owner Partha Tripathi told AFP by phone. Bangladesh's low-lying coast, which is home to 30 million people are regularly battered by cyclones that have claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in decades. The 1999 super cyclone left nearly 10,000 dead in Odisha, eight years after a typhoon, tornadoes and flooding killed 139,000 in Bangladesh.
(BCCL)

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Millions of people are struggling as the strongest cyclone in decades slammed into Bangladesh and eastern India, killing at least three and... Read More

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