Landslide hit the Bangladesh port city of Chittagong

THE death toll from a rain-triggered landslide in the Bangladesh port city of Chittagong has risen to 17, as five more bodies were pulled from the mud on Saturday.

The victims were buried while sleeping in their tin-roofed shanty houses in the southeastern city’s Lalkhan Bazaar slum, which lies at the bottom of a hill. Twelve bodies – mostly women and children – were dug out on Friday after three days of heavy rains triggered the landslide, with the mud burying at least seven houses. Chittagong mayor Manzur Alam told AFP the search operation had been called off as nobody else was missing.

In recent years monsoon rains have caused deadly landslides in Chittagong, home to five million people, killing hundreds and prompting the government to tighten rules on where development. In June 2007, landslides triggered by the heavy rain in Chittagong killed at least 130 people. (HeraldSun)

Chittagong is 225km southeast of the capital, Dhaka. Landslides are common in Bangladesh during the monsoon season. Last year, more than 60 people died in rain-triggered landslides in the region.