Sea surge maroons 200,000 in Bangladesh

Some 200,000 people were marooned in Bangladesh when a storm caused a sea surge to swamp a number of villages in southern coastal districts, officials said.

Three landslides caused by torrential monsoon rains killed 10 people while six others drowned in swirling flood waters in southeastern Cox's Bazar district, said chief administrator Sajjadul Hasan.

"Low-lying areas in the districts have gone under 1.3 to 1.7 metres of flood water, stranding over 20,000 people," Mr Hasan said.

Heavy monsoon rains in southern, southeastern and northeastern Bangladesh have triggered landslides and flash floods, killing at least 20 people over the past four days.

Several rivers in the southeastern hill districts burst their banks and caused the floods, officials said.

Bangladesh, which is criss-crossed by over 200 rivers, was hit by a major floods last year, when water fed by melting glaciers in the Himalayas and heavy rains inundated more than 40 per cent of the land.

More than a thousand people were killed in the floods, which left millions of people homeless and damaged infrastructure and property worth over a billion dollars.

_{Bron: ABC}