In Wake of Deadly Cyclone, Crowds Loot Shops in India

Mobs looted cars and shops in the eastern Indian state of Orissa on Sunday after a cyclone that officials say may have killed thousands of people and left at least 1.5 million homeless.

Villagers wielding sticks forcibly stopped passing cars and looted shops and a mill on the highway linking Bhubaneswar, the state capital, and the town of Cuttack, taking potatoes, wheat and flour, witnesses and officials said.

News reports confirmed 232 people killed so far in one of the worst cyclones to hit eastern India. The storm snapped all communication links to the worst-hit areas, however, and officials feared the death toll could rise into the thousands.

“At least 3,000 people are feared dead,” said Star News television, although no account of the storm’s impact has come in from the worst-hit districts, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur.

The cyclone, the second to hit Orissa in a month, will be treated as a national emergency, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has said.

Most telephone and power lines were cut in the region after winds of up to 160 mph hit the state Friday.

Preliminary reports showed that 200,000 houses had been destroyed in 15,000 villages in the coastal districts of the state, one of the poorest in India. Army aircraft and helicopters could not budge until Sunday because of fierce winds and rain.

“Three warehouses of the FCI [Food Corp. of India] have been emptied, but there is still looting,” said Dand Sinha, an aide to Chief Minister Giridhar Gamang. “They are hungry, and they have no water either.”

The chief minister appealed for aid from India’s federal government, state governments and international agencies, the state’s Doordarshan television reported.