About 100-foot portion of the Gumti dam was damaged by the swelling river water but no deaths or injuries were reported, an official in Comilla town, 150 km off the capital, said.

Local people however blamed the authorities for not repairing a crack, which caused the disaster. Army personnel have been deployed to check further damage of the embankment.

A GMG Airlines flight from Dhaka could not land at Barisal airport yesterday afternoon due to poor visibility amid heavy downpour and gusty wind.

Met office forecast the current spell of rain that started six days ago paralysing life and economic activities across Bangladesh would continue for four more days.

Yesterday's rain was the result of monsoon and the depression that crossed Bangladesh on Tuesday, a forecast officer said. "There will be light to moderate rains in Dhaka and rest parts of the country in next three to four days. But the situation is improving."

GUMTI BURSTS BANKS

"I was cooking at about 6:30pm and suddenly found water entering my house," Amena Begum, a housewife who lived near the dam-cut point, told The Daily Star yesterday noon.

Locals said the strong current stormed through a crack on Gumti embankment in Bara Alampur area developed three weeks ago. The water submerged five unions in Devidwar upazila Wednesday night and engulfed more villages in neighbouring Burichang upazila until yesterday noon.

The most affected areas are Fatehabad, Bara Alampur, Elahabad and Gonaighar unions, Devidwar municipality and Varella, Mokam and Peerjatrapur unions of Burichang upazila.

The affected people took shelter on the embankment and educational institutions.

While Devidwar officials estimated crops on 10,000 hectares of land worth about Tk 30 crore were washed away by the dam burst, officials in Burichang said standing crops on 567 hectares were damaged and fish of 600 ponds washed away.

As water passes over Comilla-Brahmanbaria-Sylhet road, the Department of Roads and Highways (R&H) yesterday stopped movement of vehicles on the road. "The R&H will put barricades as some vehicles are still plying on the road," said Abdul Awal of Comilla Police Control Room.

Army personnel have been deployed to stop further burst of the riverbank but the repair work was yet to begin. "Breach is wide and current is strong. Now it is beyond repair," said Major Habibe Khuda who leads the troops from the Engineering Corps.

Tariqul Islam, a senior district official, said the dam on the river had burst because of heavy rainfall in the region and across the border in the neighbouring Indian State of Tripura.

Blaming officials of the Water Development Board (WDB) for failure to contain the breach timely, locals said engineers were sent to the spot when the dam was beyond repair. "Sheer irresponsibility of the engineers has caused the destruction," said Prof Abul Hashem, a local elder.

WDB executive engineer of the Gumti section Khorshed Alam has no convincing answer. "We could not yet ascertain the reason for the wide breach," he said.

DHAKA SITUATION

Dhaka residents' plight continues as drizzling continued for the sixth consecutive day yesterday.

The rain eased on Tuesday evening but there were intermittent showers.

Although Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority pumped out water from most parts of the city, there was stagnant water in Mohakhali DOHS area, old part of the city, Mohammadpur embankment area and on the road in front of Kakrail mosque.

This week's deluge also forced thousands of families to leave their homes in a Dhaka suburb known as DND (Dhaka-Narayanganj-Demra) embankment area where over one million people live. About 17,000 people took shelter on the embankment and in buildings.

The city roads took quite a normal look yesterday as most passenger vehicles that kept off the road started plying. More people came out to the roads yesterday.

Our Pabna correspondent reports: Most places of nine upazilas of the district were inundated by the rain-fed flooding that so far damaged crops on 4,000 hectares of land. Potato worth Tk 68 lakh kept in cold storage was damaged due to power outages caused by the deluge.

The sun did not appear at any place in the country, the met office yesterday said forecasting further light to moderate rain in most places of Dhaka, Barisal and Khulna divisions and many places of Rajshahi, Chittagong and Sylhet divisions today.

The second bout of flooding this season caused by the heaviest downpour in more than 50 years so far killed at least 19 people. The July-August flooding had left 700 people dead and 10 million homeless, causing colossal loss to agriculture, industry and infrastructure.