35 people killed in landslides in Bangladesh

Heavy monsoon rains have killed at least 35 people in southeast Bangladesh, most of them buried under landslides, authorities said on Tuesday.

Police warned that the death toll would likely rise as emergency workers reached remote parts of the affected area, where telephone and transport links had been cut."The recovery work is still going on," the head of the Department of Disaster Management Reaz Ahmed told AFP.

Most of the deaths occurred in



two districts, Rangamati and Bandarban, which the meteorological office said had been pounded by heavy rains since early Monday.

Bazlur Rashid, a weather official, told AFP Rangamati had been pounded by 343 millimetres (13.5 inches) of rain on Monday."It is still going on today," he said. 

Heavy monsoon rains also pounded the capital Dhaka and Chittagong, a major port city, disrupting traffic movement for hours.