Six people, including three children, were killed and another three injured in a landslide in Bandarban’s Lama upazila early yesterday.
The dead are Amena Begum, 36, her son Arafat, 14, Rozina Akhter, 25, her son Md Sazzad, 4, Bashir Ahmed, 50, and her granddaughter Fatema Akhter, 11.
The landslide occurred at Haspatal Para amid heavy rains around 2am, said police.
All the injured were admitted to Lama Upazila Health Complex.
Firefighters launched a rescue operation and called it off around 5pm yesterday after six bodies were recovered, said Sirajul Islam, officer-in-charge of Lama police station.
He said the victims who died were asleep and could not sense any danger when the landslide occurred.
“Locals joined firefighters to recover the bodies,” he said.
Kazi Mujibur Rahman, a member of Bandarban Hill District Council, said the landslide originated some 500 feet above the ground.
Bandarban Hill District Council Chairman Kyaw Shwe Hla said the families of the six victims who died had been provided with Tk10,000 each.
The local authorities since last week have been advising people living in hill slopes in seven upazilas of the district to move to safety to ward off landslide casualties but the warnings have largely been ignored.
In June this year, two people died and more than 300 injured in landslides.
Incessant rains meanwhile have aggravated the district’s flood situation.
