CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh - At least 62 people were killed and many others were injured Monday in mudslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains in a hilly port city in southeastern Bangladesh, rescue officials and witnesses said.
The worst-hit area was a congested shantytown near a military area in Chittagong, where large chunks of hill collapsed and buried dozens of bamboo and straw shacks. Army rescuers pulled out at least 35 bodies from the debris, Shahidul Islam, a city official, said.
Five members of a family died when the walls of their brick home collapsed in heavy rain on the Chittagong University campus, Nasir Ahmed, a fire brigade officer manning a control center, said.
Ahmed said rescuers pulled out 11 bodies from the remnants of a hilly slum on land belonging to Bangladesh Railways. Six others died in another hillside slum near a power station, he added.
Four others, including a young mother and her toddler, were killed when the walls of their houses collapsed, and a policeman was electrocuted when he stepped on a snapped electric wire, the officer said.
Emergency workers managed to rescue more than 50 injured people from the rubble in the affected areas, he added.
About 100 residents of a posh hilltop residential area were trapped in their homes as rainwater and mud blocked nearby roads, he said.
Flash floods and inundated roads were hampering rescue efforts and traffic in the city of 4 million, 135 miles southeast of the capital, Dhaka. Many schools and businesses were forced to close for the day.
About 8 1/2 inches of rain fell in just three hours early Monday, the local weather bureau said. But the rains had eased by late Monday.
Many residents said the rainfall and flooding were among the worst in memory.
"I have never seen so much water in my life," said Mofizur Rahman, 75, who has lived near the city's main hospital, Chittagong Medical College Hospital, for 45 years.
Heavy monsoon rains -- the highest recorded in seven years -- also inundated parts of the capital and other regions of the country over the weekend.
In Dhaka, many busy roads and residential areas were flooded Sunday, stranding commuters and residents and forcing businesses, schools and many offices to stay shut.
Bangladesh, a low-lying delta nation of 144 million people, is prone to seasonal floods and cyclones.
