Cyclone death toll could reach 250,000

Breaking Earth News
Myanmar (Burma)

THE death toll from Burma's worst natural disaster in living memory could reach 250,000, and millions people will be homeless, a commentator says.

Cyclone Nargis savaged Burma's densely populated rice-growing Irrawaddy Delta region and Rangoon with winds of up to 200km/h at the weekend.

The hardline military dictatorship which rules Burma has so far put the number of deaths at 22,000.

But Larry Jagan, former BBC Asia affairs editor, says military sources put the fatalities around 30,000.

"This is the worst natural disaster that Burma has suffered in living memory. It's very much like Burma's tsunami,'' he told ABC Television.

"I fear the death toll could mount to something like a quarter of a million people.''