22 Oct 2010 15:00:56 GMT
Source: Reuters
* Myanmar says cyclone hit coastal town
* Telephone contact lost with affected area
* Myanmar and Bangladesh warn of tidal surges (Adds residents told to leave low-lying areas on Myanmar coast)
YANGON/DHAKA, Oct 22 (Reuters) - State television in Myanmar said on Friday that a cyclone had hit the country's west coast on the Bay of Bengal and could trigger a tidal surge of up to 12 feet (3.7 metres) in some coastal towns.
MRTV said Cyclone Giri had struck the coast near the town of Kyaukphyu, with winds reaching 100 miles per hour (160 kph). Telephone contact with coastal towns was interrupted shortly after the cyclone reached the area.
The authorities had earlier advised residents to leave low-lying areas along the coast.
Coastal and delta regions in the Southeast Asian country are often hit by strong storms. More than 130,000 people were killed or went missing when Cyclone Nargis struck the Irrawaddy delta in May 2008. The Bangladesh meteorological department had earlier warned that what it termed a cyclonic storm could hit the Bangladesh-Myanmar coast late on Friday.
It said the storm, at that point centred 390 km (240 miles) from Chittagong port, packed winds up to 115 kph (70 mph) and that ships and deep-sea fishing vessels had been asked to move closer to shore.
Nearly half a million Bangladeshis were left homeless by three days of storms that killed at least 15 people earlier this month.
Storms batter the poor south Asian country every year. Cyclone Sidr, which killed nearly 3,500 people and displaced some two million in November 2007, was the most severe in the last five years. (Reporting by Aung Hla Tun in Yangon and Anis Ahmed in Dhaka; Writing by Alan Raybould; Editing by Sugita Katyal)