THOUSANDS TRAPPED IN BANGLADESH FLASH FLOODS
Flash floods and high winds have trapped
some 10,000 people and injured at least 50 in northeastern
Bangladesh's Sunamganj district, officials said.
    They said water, knee-deep in at least 10 villages
following heavy rains last Wednesday, was receding after
extensively damaging crops and property.
    The situation was aggravated by a 40-mile-per-hour storm
which swept across the area yesterday and flattened at least
200 houses, the officials said but gave no other details.
    Relief Ministry officials, describing the floods as a
"routine hazard," told Reuters relief squads had been dispatched
to the area with food and medicine.
 Reuter
