Cyclone Toll Up to 317 in India and Bangladesh

A powerful cyclone sweeping across low-lying coastal areas of Bangladesh and eastern India left at least 317 people dead and destroyed crops ready for harvest, officials and news reports said Wednesday.

At least 275 fishermen were reported missing in Bangladesh from Tuesday’s storm that packed 140-m.p.h. winds, heavy rain and whipped tidal waves up to 15 feet.

Several hundred mud huts used as homes by fishermen were destroyed, and the casualty toll was expected to rise when reports come in from hundreds of tiny islands in the Bay of Bengal, officials in the capital of Dhaka said.

Officials at the Cyclone Preparedness Center in Dhaka said the cyclone killed 288 people in southern Bangladesh. Press Trust of India said 29 people perished in the Indian state of West Bengal.

United News of India news agency, quoting authorities in Dhaka, said more than 870 people, including 500 fishermen, were killed.

Sources at the southern port of Chittagong said a Singapore-registered vessel, the Pamir, sank in the cyclone with 16 crew members on board. Port officials said the entire crew was presumed dead.

Dhaka, a city of 6 million residents, was hit by winds up to 75 m.p.h., causing extensive damage to power and telephone lines.