Cyclone Amphan, one of the most powerful in decades, has made landfall along the coastline of India and Bangladesh, killing at least five people and leaving a trail of devastation.

In Bangladesh, officials on Wednesday evening confirmed three deaths, including a five-year-old boy and a 75-year-old man, both hit by falling trees, and a cyclone emergency volunteer who drowned.

evacuated in India before storm
Two other fatalities were reported by the Indian media, including an infant crushed when the mud wall of the family's hut collapsed in heavy rain in Odisha state, AFP news agency reported.

Bangladesh evacuated 2.4 million people to shelters. Another 650,000 people were moved to safety in the eastern Indian states of Odisha and West Bengal, authorities said, an operation carried out amid surging coronavirus infections.



The region, with 58 million people in the two bordering countries, has some of the most vulnerable communities in South Asia: poor fishing communities in the Sunderbans and over a million Rohingya refugees living in crowded camps in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh.