At least three people were killed and nearly 100 injured in Bangladesh today when a road bridge packed with hundreds of cyclone survivors waiting for food aid collapsed into a river.
A further 20 people were missing.
The bridge in Kalapara village in Patuakhali district gave way beneath the crowd of people who were hoping for the arrival of vehicles with food and other relief after the country's deadliest cyclone in 16 years.
Cyclone Sidr killed about 3,500 people and left thousands missing or injured. Some two million were displaced.
Witnesses said thousands of hungry survivors were thronging river banks and road sides in cyclone-torn coastal areas.
At least 10 people were hurt when police baton-charged a group of angry survivors at a Patuakhali village, police said.
Many came from remote areas hoping for food handouts from the government and non-governmental organisations.
"We have walked for several kilometres to reach this river bank to get some food because relief operators just distribute to the people on the banks and roadside," said Marzina Begum, who lost her son and husband in the storm. "They don't think there are many survivors in the interior parts."
Bangladesh's airforce continued relief sorties with its fleet of 13 helicopters and planes. "With such a small fleet of aircraft it is not possible to give adequate relief to thousands of survivors," a relief official said.