Fishermen and rescue workers in Bangladesh said Sunday a storm that pounded the Bay of Bengal six days ago may have claimed many more lives than the official toll as nearly 1,800 are still missing. The government said Sunday 1,788 fishermen and 391 trawlers were still missing after the storm that also killed scores of people in coastal regions including in India.
The death toll in Bangladesh was raised to 37 from 31, far short of the 85 dead reported by Bangladesh's official news agency BSS.
But estimates by fishermen who managed to reach shore and rescue workers on the scene said that many more may have died at sea. Their claims could not be verified by police or the government.
"There are hundreds of them floating on the edge of the Sunderbans. It is impossible to identify them or bring them back to our villages," said Abul Kalam, a fisherman who survived for days on a wooden plank after the storm hit last week.
Kalam said the crew aboard his trawler were amazed by the storm's power.
"Throughout Tuesday the weather was very good. But by the evening the whole sky turned dark and suddenly huge winds and 20-to-30 feet (6-to-9 metres) waves engulfed our boats," he said.
"Out of 14 fishermen in our trawler, only three of us survived," said Kalam who was being treated with other survivors at Patharghata hospital in southern Bangladesh.
A Red Cross official said the death toll could rise drastically after he heard "horrible" tales from fishermen who reached safety.
"Our men have talked to hundreds of fishermen rescued after the storm. All said it was a huge storm and it sank scores of trawlers within minutes," said Shamsul Alam, a Red Cross cyclone preparedness officer.
"It's a tragedy of huge scale,' he said, adding that many bodies could not be recovered because of continued bad weather.
Defying the weather, at least 11 coast guard and six naval ships and two helicopters searched Sunday for missing fishermen and a naval officer in a 70-kilometre (112-mile) radius around the dense Sunderbans mangrove forests that stretch from Bangladesh to India's state of West Bengal, coast guard commander Mohammad Badruddoza said.
"We have just managed to rescue a naval ship which ran aground. But we haven't found the commander of the ship who fell during the storm, he said.
Shahjahan Shiraji, a spokesman for the Food and Disaster Management Ministry in the capital Dhaka, said bad weather remained a problem, but added there was still hope that some of the missing had taken shelter in remote islands within the Sunderbans.
The storm also wreaked havoc along the coast of India's West Bengal, flattening mud houses and downing trees and utility poles. Authorities there said at least 29 people were killed and dozens of trawlers remain missing.
In Dhaka, Bangladesh's main opposition party, the Awami League, walked out of parliament to protest what it said was the government's failure to alert the fishermen about the storm.
"We've demanded a probe into this tragedy. The government's weather department has failed to alert the fishermen adequately," Suranjit Sengupta, an Awami League leader told reporters.
Storms and cyclones which form over the Bay of Bengal in September and October every year kill hundreds and destroy cattle and crops in Bangladesh and in India's eastern coastal states.
Source: Agence France-Presse
