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full screen Kuakata beach on the Bay of Bengal in southern Bangladesh has been flooded as a result of the cyclone which is expected to move in at midnight. Photo: Abdul Goni/AP/TT
Nearly 800,000 people have been evacuated from their homes on the coast of Bangladesh following warnings that an intense cyclone was approaching, the country’s authorities said.
The cyclone is expected to move in over the country’s southern coast and parts of neighboring India at midnight on Sunday, local time.
The weather authorities predict large waves, gale force winds and gusts of up to just over 36 meters per second. The country’s disaster ministry says volunteers have been deployed to evacuate people to 4,000 cyclone shelters across the country’s coastal regions.
The government has also temporarily closed all schools and the airport in the region.
Hundreds of thousands of people have died as a result of cyclones in Bangladesh in recent decades. The death toll on the densely populated coast has increased sharply due to climate change.