Comilla

At least 50 people were feared to have burned to death on Saturday after fire engulfed a bus in the eastern Bangladeshi town of Comilla, police said. "The bus with nearly 60 people on board hit an auto rickshaw causing its gas cylinder to explode. A fire started and swept through the bus," said Mohammed Kamal Uddin, district police inspector in Comilla.

Half a million people in eastern Bangladesh were stranded by floodwaters on Thursday after a swollen river burst its banks and poured into more than 350 villages, officials said. An earth embankment along the Gomoti river in Comilla district gave way on Wednesday evening and sent flood water gushing towards nearby villages.