Dhaka:
A severe storm left at least nine people dead and about 1,000 homeless after hitting northern Bangladesh overnight, police and a local government official said on Monday.
The storm tore through dozens of villages in northern Netrokona district close to the border with India, destroying homes and wrecking rice paddy fields, they said.
"At least nine people including a family of four were killed in the storm," district police official Rashel Miah told AFP, adding that the full extent of the storm's destruction was not yet known.
"Up to 20 people were injured including one whose condition is very critical. The family of four include a pregnant woman and her three children who died after a side wall fell on them," he said.
"Around 1,000 homes" mostly made of mud and tin were flattened, government district administrator Abul Kalam Azad said.
Storms known locally as Kalboishakhis often hit Bangladesh during the early months of summer in the lead up the monsoon that generally begins in the first week of June.