(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-11-21 23:47

DHAKA - The death toll over the cyclone which hit Bangladesh's southern and southwestern coastal areas last Thursday night, climbed up to 3,167 until Wednesday afternoon.

An old man prays on his house damaged by cyclone in Barguna district, 300 km south of Dhaka on Nov. 19, 2007. [Xinhua]

According to the Armed Forces Division, 14 more deaths have been confirmed, compared with the figure 3,153 which was also released by the army Tuesday afternoon.

Besides, latest report by the Food and Disaster Management Ministry shows Wednesday, some 200 sub-districts of 30 districts came under the fury of the storm, which made landfall from the Bay of Bengal with terrifying wind speeds up to 240 kph.

As some 2,000 people still remained missing in the affected districts, the death toll might go up further.

Around 5.5 million people of 1.3 million families have been passing their days in miseries, as most of them rendered homeless by the storms.

According to the report, a total of more than 1.1 million houses were either completely or partially damaged by the tempest, while some 352,000 livestock and poultry birds perished during the hurricane.

Standing crops on some 153,000 acres (about 620,00 hectares) of land were completely damaged during the storm while it damaged crops on around 1.3 million acres (513,000 hectares) partially.

The catastrophic cyclone was one of the fiercest cyclones that had hit Bangladesh in the 131 years between 1876 and 2007.

Bangladesh's caretaker government Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed Tuesday said the government would welcome assistance from Bangladesh's friendly countries and development partners when addressing the nation.

The World Bank Wednesday offered up to US$250 million to help millions of Bangladeshis recover and strengthen the country's disaster mitigation systems.