Five members of two families, including a young child, were killed in two separate landslides in Bandarban's Lama upazila early Thursday, as relentless monsoon rains continued to wreak havoc across southeastern Bangladesh.
The latest fatalities pushed the death toll from rain-triggered landslides and wall collapses to at least 22 across Bandarban, Chattogram, Cox's Bazar and Rangamati over the past four days.
The first landslide struck at around 4:00am in Mission Para (Paglir Jhiri) of Aziznagar Union, burying a family while they slept.
The victims were identified as Md Yunus, his wife Ranu Akter and their son Md Soleman. Police identified the child as five years old, though local officials said he was four.
About 90 minutes later, another landslide hit the same area, killing Md Jewel, 34, and his wife Kulsuma Akter, 25, after soil and the wall of their single-storey house collapsed onto them.
The couple, originally from Rampura in Chattogram's Halishahar, had been living in Mission Para as tenants.
Residents, firefighters and police recovered all five bodies.
Bandarban Superintendent of Police Md Wahabul Islam Khandaker confirmed the deaths, saying legal procedures were underway.
Aziznagar Union Parishad Chairman Mobarak Hossain Moharam said local residents joined Fire Service personnel in the rescue operation after hearing the first landslide.
The fresh tragedy came as a low-pressure system over the Bay of Bengal continued to batter the Chattogram region with torrential rain for a fourth consecutive day.
According to the Bangladesh Meteorological Department, the monsoon is currently active over Bangladesh and strong over the northern Bay, with heavy rainfall expected to continue for at least two more days.
The weather system has triggered widespread flooding, landslides and transport disruptions across the southeast.
Chattogram city remained waterlogged for a second straight day, with floodwater rising from knee to waist level in several neighbourhoods. Rail services between Chattogram and Cox's Bazar were suspended after tracks went under water.
The Met Office recorded 179.4 millimetres of rainfall in the 24 hours ending at 3:00pm on Wednesday. A day earlier, Chattogram received 412 millimetres of rain—the city's highest daily rainfall in 43 years.
Professor Alok Pal of the University of Chittagong's Department of Geography and Environmental Studies told Prothom Alo newspaper the rainfall was intensified by the low-pressure system over the Bay after an unusually dry first 20 days of the Bengali month of Ashar.
Before Thursday's deaths in Bandarban, at least 17 people had already died in rain-related disasters since Sunday night.
Eight Rohingya refugees, including seven children and a teacher, were killed in separate landslides in Cox's Bazar refugee camps.
Two more people died elsewhere in the district, while five others were killed in landslides and wall collapses in Chattogram, Cox's Bazar and Rangamati.
Authorities warned that saturated hillsides have sharply increased the risk of further landslides, particularly in Bandarban, and urged residents living on unstable slopes and at the foot of hills to move to safer locations immediately.
Police said some residents in high-risk areas were still reluctant to evacuate despite repeated warnings. The administration said evacuation efforts and surveillance of vulnerable areas would continue as the heavy rain persists.
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