Five children, belonging to one family, were killed in a rain-triggered landslide in the south-eastern Bangladeshi district of Cox’s Bazar, Police confirmed the deaths on Wednesday.
Officer Hafizur Rahman said rescuers found the bodies of three boys and two girls, all from the same family and aged between 16 and five.
The children bodies were buried in their tin-roofed home beneath the mud beside a small mountain in the early hours in Teknaf sub-district.
The parents of the children survived with injuries, and were rushed to a local hospital, he said.
The officer added that heavy rain in the area caused the mudslide.
The site is located more than 300 kilometres southeast of the capital Dhaka.
Five Rohingya Muslims were killed in a similar landslide at a refugee camp in the neighbouring Ukhiya sub-district on Tuesday as the southeast experienced heavy rain in the last three days.
Cox’s Bazar experienced 250 millimetres of rainfall in the last 48 hours ended on Wednesday morning, according to Bangladesh’s meteorological department.
The authorities had planned the evacuation of residents living in hillside homes, a local government official, Rashed Mahmud said.
Fatalities from rain-triggered mudslides are common in Bangladesh’s south-eastern hilly region during the monsoon season that generally lasts between June and September.
At least 149 people were killed in landslides in the districts of Chattogram, Cox’s Bazar, Rangamati and Bandarban in June 2017.
More than 120 others were killed in Chattogram alone in June 2007 mudslides caused by monsoon rain.
