EAST PAKISTAN CYCLONE

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30146, 1 June 1963, Page 11

EAST PAKISTAN CYCLONE

Papers Put Deaths In Thousands (N.Z.P.A -Reuter—Copyright) DACCA, May 31. The cyclone which hit the coastal belt of East Pakistan on Wednesday killed 1000 people, the Deputy Commissioner of the hard-hit port of. Chittagong announced today.

He said 74 bodies had been recovered so far by Army rescue workers. “Several hundred” people were found dead in villages in one district near Chittagong alone. ’

Newspaper reports put the toll much higher. The New Delhi newspaper, the “Statesman,” said in a report from Dacca today that the death toll might reach 5000. It said 842 victims had already been buried. The Dacca “Morning Post" said that ait least 1000 people had been killed, while the “Pakistan Observer” said “several thousand.” The Governor of East Pakistan, Abdul Monem. quoted by the newspapers, gave the toll as 400 to 500. The Associated Press of Pakistan said unofficial estimates were “ait least 5000 killed” along the 80-mile stretch of coastline on the

Bay of Bengal which was hit by the cyclone. Preliminary reports from Cox’s Bazaar, a seaside resort, indicated that after the 15-hour buffeting at • least 100,000 people were homeless, the Deputy Commissioner of Chittagong said. He expected the death toll would be high in Cox’s Bazaar and on an offshore island. Winds during the storm were reported to be up to 130 m.p.h. The Associated Press of Pakistan reported that a few people who had made their way from Cox's Bazaar estimated the number dead in the resort at 1000. It said a “colcesa'l” number of cattie also died.

Chittagong and its population of nearly half a million people were still without power and water today. Army rescue teams conducted mass inoculations agairist disease and distributed food.