The death toll from Thursday night's powerful cyclone Sidr rose to 2407 as rescuers frantically looking for thousands of missing people in the coastal districts of Bangladesh.

 

A mother in a veil takes her injured daughter to a hospital in Barisal district town, south west of the Bangladesh capital Dhaka, Nov. 17, 2007.

 

A bulletin of the Disaster Ministry put the death toll at 2407 till 12 noon Monday.

 

Rescuers and local journalists who visited the worst hit offshore islands feared the casualty figure will go up further as thousands of villagers, mostly fishermen, were still missing.

 

Air force helicopters navy ships and coast guards are making desperate efforts to rescue people and reach foods to the cyclone victims.

 

Southwestern Mongla Navy Commander Rezaul Karim told Xinhua they rescued 110 floating fishermen from the sea Sunday after three days of the cyclone. These fishermen saved their lives by holding plastic drums they used to carry drinking water.

 

The storm damaged 968,000 houses either completely or partially. Besides, standing crops on some 518,481 acres (about 210,000 hectares) of land were completely or partially damaged during the catastrophic storm.

 

Some 242,000 domestic animals and poultry birds were killed during the tempest, the sources said.

 

Graphic showing the path of Tropical Cyclone Sidr.

 

Food and Disaster Management acting secretary Ayub Miah said Bangladesh's development partners assured the government of assistance in conducting relief and rehabilitation program.

 

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP), UNICEF, the UK government, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Islamic Relief-UK and Spain have pledged to provide over US$30 million.

 

Meanwhile, World Food Program (WFP) would allocate 10,000 metric tons of rice and 200 tons of high protein biscuits.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 19, 2007)