23 dead, 500,000 flee as Cyclone Roanu hits Bangladesh

CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh: Cyclone Roanu battered the coast of southern Bangladesh on Saturday, forcing half a million people to flee their homes and leaving 23 people dead in floods and rain-triggered landslides.

The cyclone damaged tens of thousands of mud-and-tin houses in the impoverished southern districts, with many low-lying villages inundated by a storm surge that swelled up to seven feet (two meters) high.