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Bangladesh cyclone toll reaches 2,217: official

Other News Materials 18 November 2007 16:41 (UTC +04:00)

( AFP ) - Bangladesh said 2,217 people were confirmed to have died after a cyclone smashed into the south of the country, with the toll from the disaster expected to rise further.

"The death toll up to now is 2,217 and we are still getting more from various districts in the coastal region," said Salina Shahid of the relief and disaster management ministry.

Officials have said the toll does not include many victims from remote areas cut off by roads blocked by fallen trees.

There has also been no word from the string of islands off the south coast and in the Bay of Bengal, which would have also suffered the full strength of Thursday night's storm.

These areas, also hit by a six-metre (20 foot) tidal wave, are home to at least tens and possibly hundreds of thousands of people -- and it is uncertain how many of them made it to cyclone shelters.

"In the remote areas, it is slow going, they are almost chopping trees as they go along," said Douglas Casson Coutts of the World Food Programme.

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