108 Die in Bangladesh Mudslides, Floods

The heaviest recorded rainfall levels in seven years have also inundated parts of the capital, Dhaka, and other regions.

Bangladesh, a low-lying delta nation of 150 million people, is buffeted by cyclones and floods that kill hundreds each year. A powerful cyclone in 1991 killed 139,000 people.

Densely populated and grindingly poor, the country is filled with slums that are particularly vulnerable -- the one hit in Chittagong was home to 700 people, most of them migrant workers and their families who lived in clusters of straw-and-bamboo or mud-and-tin shanties built on the slope of hill, survivors said.

Dulu Mia Munshi, a rickshaw puller, said he lost five family members, including his wife and two young sons.

"There was a sudden rush of mud and water, and our home was swept away," Munshi told The Associated Press by telephone from his hospital bed. Five other neighboring shanties on a slope were also washed away.