82 dead as Cyclone Amphan tears into India, Bangladesh coasts

Munir Uz zaman / AFP

At least 82 people have been killed and thousands of homes destroyed as a powerful cyclone slammed into eastern India and Bangladesh, with gusting winds of up to 185 kmph.

Indian federal authorities put the death toll in the state of West Bengal at 72, adding that some of the hardest hit regions were still inaccessible due to continuous rainfall. 

"We are facing greater damage and devastation than the CoVID-19," Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said.

Parts of the capital city, Kolkata, were plunged into darkness, with strong winds uprooting trees and electricity poles.

In neighbouring Bangladesh, at least 10 people have died with power outages reported in some districts.

More from International News

  • Trump says Iran war goals nearly accomplished in televised address

    The United States will carry out aggressive strikes on Iran over the next two to three weeks and is nearing completion of its main strategic objectives in the war, President Donald Trump said in a televised address to the nation on Wednesday.

  • One killed as Indonesia earthquake damages buildings

    An earthquake of magnitude 7.6 has struck in Indonesia's Northern Molucca Sea on Thursday, killing one person, damaging some buildings, and triggering tsunami waves, authorities and witnesses said.

  • Florida vice mayor shot dead, husband jailed as suspect

    The vice mayor of Coral Springs, Florida, has been shot and killed on Wednesday, with her husband taken into custody as the lone suspect in what police called a case of domestic violence, officials said. Nancy Metayer Bowen, 38, was the first Black woman and first Haitian American woman to serve as commissioner in Coral Springs, a town of about 134,000 people, some 72 km north of Miami. She was elected to the commission in 2020, re-elected in 2024, and named vice mayor by her fellow commissioners, according to the city's website. Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris named her as

  • NASA launches first crewed lunar mission in half a century

    Four astronauts have blasted off from Florida on NASA's Artemis II mission, a high‑stakes 10-day trip around the moon that marks the United States' boldest step yet towards returning humans to the lunar surface this decade before China's first crewed landing.

Blogs