DHAKA: At least eight children have been killed in a landslide triggered by heavy rain at a Rohingya refugee camp in south-eastern Bangladesh, officials said on Wednesday (July 8), reported German Press Agency (dpa).
Rescuers recovered the bodies of the children from the debris after a hillside collapsed onto a religious school made of bamboo and tarpaulin in Camp 5 in the Ukhiya area of the Cox's Bazar district, amid heavy rainfall, said Nazmul Islam Bhuiyan, an official at the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission (RRRC).
"Rescue operations are ongoing to locate and recover other possible victims," he told reporters at the scene, which is located more than 325 kilometres south-east of the capital, Dhaka.
Camp officials said the landslide struck the school while children were attending classes inside. Dil Mohammad, a Rohingya community leader, said he was informed that at least 30 children, mostly girls receiving Quranic lessons, were inside the school when the hillside gave way.
The death toll may rise further as several others remain buried under the debris, Mizanur Rahman, head of the RRRC, told reporters in the afternoon. He added that 14 girls had been rescued alive and taken to a local hospital.
Dollar Tripura, head of the local fire service and civil defence emergency department, said local volunteers, police and emergency personnel were working to clear the debris and find anyone still trapped.
The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Bangladesh said in a post on X that a major landslide in Camp 5 had struck an area housing a mosque and a school.
A separate landslide killed two other children in the neighbouring district of Chattogram.
More than one million Rohingya refugees live in overcrowded camps in Cox's Bazar after fleeing persecution in neighbouring Myanmar. - Bernama-dpa
