16 reported dead as Cyclone Sitrang pounds Bangladesh coast
A woman wades through clogged tidal water in the aftermath of Cyclone Sitrang, Patuakhali, southwestern Bangladesh, Oct. 25, 2022. (AFP Photo)


At least 16 people were reported killed after a cyclone battered the coast of Bangladesh, officials confirmed Tuesday.

Trees and power poles were felled and water inundated low-lying areas after the depression-turned-cyclone, codenamed Sitrang, hit overnight Monday.

Kamrun Nahar, an official at the control room of the Disaster Management Department, said nine deaths related to the cyclone had been reported so far.

"We are still assessing the damage," she told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).

Three members of one family, including a four-year-old child, were killed when a tree fell on their house, in Nangolkot of Cumilla district, more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) southeast of the capital Dhaka, local government official Rayhan Mehboob said.

Two people died when trees fell on them in the coastal district of Bhola, said Touhidul Islam, an official at the district administration.

He said the storm had devastated vast crop fields in the island district. Many trees and electric poles were uprooted, he added.

Another woman died after a branch of a tree fell on her in the southwestern district of Narail.

Meanwhile, a man died in the capital Dhaka when a brick wall collapsed onto him, while two people died after their small boat capsized in the Jamuna river in northwestern Sirajganj district, officials said.

More than 300,000 coastal residents were evacuated by the government ahead of the cyclone’s landfall.