At least 350 die in Burma cyclone
Updated on 05 May 2008
More than 350 people die in a tropical cyclone in Burma and 20,000 homes are destroyed, according to government officials.
The country's military regime has declared five disaster areas so far. They are Irrawaddy, the main city Rangoon, Bago, Karen and Mon.
The cyclone has toppled buildings and trees in military-ruled Burma's main city.
Major casualties are feared after Cyclone Nargis, reaching wind speeds of 190 km per hour, ploughed through the heart of the sprawling river delta city of five million on Saturday.
Trees and power lines were ripped up across the city and buildings toppled in the smart suburbs surrounding Rangoon University, a Thailand-based, anti-regime activist said.
Internet, land, mobile and most satellite phone connections have been down since the storm neared the former Burmese capital, making it impossible to confirm the extent of the damage.
Kyaw Lin Oo of Thai-based Burma Democratic Concern, who managed to contact a Rangoon colleague on Saturday night, said the whole city was "in a very bad condition".
"All the trees have been uprooted and some buildings have fallen down near Rangoon University," he told Reuters in the Thai capital.
The country's military regime has declared five disaster areas so far.
The electricity supply in Rangoon failed after Nargis drew near on Friday evening.
Meteorological officials warned of a possible storm surge of up to 3.5 metres in coastal areas, suggesting tens of thousands of people could be at risk.
The streets of Yangon were virtually deserted, and buses and trains were not operating due to extensive flooding.
An official at Rangoon International Airport said all incoming flights had been diverted to the second city of Mandalay, in the middle of the south-east Asian nation, and all departures from Rangoon had been cancelled.
Weather forecasters said Nargis was likely to keep moving northeast into northern Thailand, where a storm warning has already been issued.
It remains to be seen what impact the storm will have on a referendum on an army-drafted constitution scheduled for May 10.
Burma, or Myanmar, has been run by a secretive military junta for the last 46 years and places restrictions on the movements and access of the few aid agencies allowed into the country.
