Cox’s Bazar Correspondent:

At least seven Rohingya people were killed, with several others feared trapped, after a massive landslide, triggered by heavy rainfall, buried a madrasah being used as a temporary storm shelter at a refugee camp in Ukhiya, Cox’s Bazar, this afternoon (8 July).

The incident occurred at Rohingya Camp-5 in Ukhiya around 2:30pm, according to Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Mohammed Mizanur Rahman.

He stated that torrential rains caused a nearby hillside to suddenly collapse onto the madrasah structure, where many refugees had taken temporary refuge due to the ongoing severe inclement weather.

Rescue teams from the Fire Service and Civil Defence are actively conducting rescue operations.

While authorities have confirmed the recovery of five bodies and the rescue of two injured individuals so far, the exact number of people still trapped under the mud remains unconfirmed at the time of filing this report.

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The region has been battered by relentless downpours, with Md Abdul Hannan, assistant meteorologist at the Cox’s Bazar weather office, reporting 51 millimetres of rainfall in just six hours from 6am to noon on Wednesday.

This latest tragedy follows a series of deadly rain-induced disasters across the district.

Yesterday morning, a landslide killed one person in Cox’s Bazar town, while a string of landslides on Monday claimed the lives of eight Rohingya refugees in the camps, alongside two others in Cox’s Bazar town and Pekua.

Furthermore, two children, including a Rohingya child, recently drowned in rising floodwaters amid the ongoing deluge.