800,000 seek shelter as Bangladesh braces for cyclone

Patuakhali, Bangladesh: At least 800,000 Bangladeshis fled their coastal villages Sunday for concrete storm shelters further inland as the low lying n...

Patuakhali, Bangladesh: At least 800,000 Bangladeshis fled their coastal villages Sunday for concrete storm shelters further inland as the low-lying nation prepared for crashing waves when a cyclone makes landfall, top government disaster officials said.

Cyclone Remal is set to hit the southern coast and parts of neighbouring India late Sunday evening, with Bangladesh's weather department predicting howling gales and gusts of up to 130 kilometres (81 miles) per hour.

Cyclones have killed hundreds of thousands of people in Bangladesh in recent decades, but the number of superstorms hitting its densely populated coast has increased sharply -- from one a year to as many as three -- due to the impact of climate change.

"The cyclone could unleash a storm surge of up to 12 feet (four metres) above normal astronomical tide, which can be dangerous," senior weather official Muhammad Abul Kalam Mallik told AFP.

Most of Bangladesh's coastal areas are a metre or two above sea level and high storm surges can devastate villages.