Cyclone Fani death toll rises to 17

An Indian woman walks next to a damaged building with a fishing boat lodged on its roof along the seafront in Puri, Odisha after Cyclone Fani swept through the area. SARKAR/AFP

The death toll from Cyclone Fani has risen to at least 17 as the storm continues to batter India and Bangladesh.

The strongest cyclone in five years made landfall in the Indian state of Odisha on Friday, before moving north-eastwards into Bangladesh on Saturday.

At least 12 people have been killed in Odisha, while Bangladeshi authorities say that five people are so far known to have died and more than 60 injured.

Dozens of villages on Bangladesh's low-lying coast were also submerged after embankments were breached by the storm.

A mass evacuation of more than one million people in India in the 24 hours before the tropical cyclone made landfall averted a greater loss of life, while in Bangladesh about 1.2 million people living in the most vulnerable districts have been moved to some 4,000 shelters. 

More from International News

  • Russia launches drone attack on Ukraine's Mykolaiv region

    Russia launched an overnight drone attack on the Ukrainian region of Mykolaiv, and also struck Kryvyi Rih in what Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday was the war's biggest drone attack on the city.

  • Russia, Ukraine agree to sea, energy truce

    The United States reached separate deals on Tuesday with Ukraine and Russia to pause their attacks at sea and against energy targets, with Washington agreeing to push to lift some sanctions against Moscow.

  • China's glacier area shrinks by 26% over six decades

    China's glacier area has shrunk by 26 per cent since 1960 due to rapid global warming, with 7,000 small glaciers disappearing completely and glacial retreat intensifying in recent years, official data released in March showed.

  • Trump team scrambles to handle fallout from Signal chat

    The Trump administration sought on Tuesday to contain the fallout after a magazine journalist disclosed he had been inadvertently included in a secret group discussion of highly sensitive war plans, while Democrats called on top officials to resign over the security incident.

  • US visit to Greenland is unacceptable, Danish prime minister says

    The United States is exerting "unacceptable pressure" on Greenland, Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Tuesday, ahead of an unsolicited visit by a high-profile US delegation to the semi-autonomous Danish territory this week.

On Virgin Radio today

Trending on Virgin Radio