Rangpur storm kills four

At least four people were killed, including one police official, and over a hundred were injured, as a storm swept across Rangpur early on Wednesday.

The storm, that lasted twenty minutes, snapped power connections in the district as the electric poles were pulled up from the ground and cables cut.

Afzal Hossain, a Power Development Board engineer, said resumption of the power connections will take time.

Rangpur metrology department said the storm blew at over 75 kilometres per hour.

The storm caused massive harm to the irri, boro and maze field crops, while thousands of trees were also uprooted, Hasanur Rahman Khan, deputy director of the district agriculture extension department told bdnews24.com.

The police official that died was one of seven officials, who had came to Rangpur to participate in a training programme, when a wall of a training centre fell on them, Saleh Mohammad Tanvir, commander of the training centre said.

They were admitted to Rangpur Medical College Hospital, but assistant sub-inspector Amir Hossain, 45, died on the way to hospital, he said.

The three other people who died have been identified as Moja Mia, 45 and Ahsan Habib, 35, of Kaunia upazila and 'Salam', 32, of Mithapukur upazila.

Rangpur deputy commissioner BM Enamul Haque said the storm had devastated 5,000 houses in the district.

Many of the affected people are claiming that the local administration have not provided them any assistance