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A couple and their two-year old boy were killed and four others were injured in a landslide caused by a heavy downpour on Monday early morning.

The rain also inundated around 50 neighbourhoods and areas in the city, only a day after the stagnant rainwater receded from the city. 

The police identified the deceased as Aga Karim Uddin, 31, son of late Rafik Uddin of House-89, Road 2 at Chamelibagh in Majortila in the city, his wife Shammi Aktar Rosy, 25, and son Nafji Tanim, 2.

Sylhet City Corporation’s local ward councillor Jahangir Alam told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· that Aga Rahim Uddin, his younger brother Aga Karim and paternal cousins along with their families had been living in the house at the bottom of a hillock at Chamelibagh.

Following the heavy rainfall that began in the early hours of Monday, a side of the hillock caved in on the semi-pucca house crushing it and trapping a total 11 members of two joint-families, he said.

Zahangir said that the neighbours rescued Karim’s mother, elder brother Rahim, Rahim’s wife and their son and Karim’s cousins Aga Mahmud Uddin, Aga Babul Uddin, Aga Bachchu Uddin and Aga Shafik Uddin from inside the rooms.

He said that the rescued family members were sent to Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital for treatment as they were hurt in the land slide.  

‘But, Karim, his wife and son could not be rescued as their room was completely buried under a huge chunk of earth,’ the councillor said.  Being informed, a team of Shah Paran police and two teams of Sylhet Fire Brigade and Civil Defence rushed to the spot and tried to recover the victims.

Sylhet city mayor Anwaruzzaman Chowdhury told reporters that the lane leading to the collapsed house was very narrow barring rescue equipment from reaching the spot.

‘For that reason, members of the fire service, police and city corporation staff could not reach the spot with machinery, including excavator. The rescue operation is being carried out manually,’ he said during the rescue operation.

Sylhet Fire Brigade and Civil Service senior station officer Md Bilal Hossain told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· that three army teams from the Sylhet cantonment reached the spot and joined the rescue effort that ended about noon with recovery of the body of Karim, his wife and son from under the crushed house.  

Shah Paran police officer-in-charge Harunur Rashid Chowdhury told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· that the dead bodies were kept in the Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital morgue.

‘Relatives of the victims are trying to get permission to bury the bodies without post-mortem examinations. If they bring the permission of the administration, the bodies will be handed over to them,’ said the officer.

The heavy rain from 6:00am to 9:00am on the day also marooned over 50,000 people again after only a day when floodwater receded from the city streets and neighbourhoods, sending many houses in the low-lying areas under water.

The areas in the city submerged in the rainwater included Khujarkhola, Bherthakhola, Mominkhola, Barokhola, Lawai, Pirojpur, Kayastharai, Sadarpara, Munshipara, Jamtola, Kazirbazar, Kalapara, Bagbari, Madina Market, Machhimpur, Chharar Par, Sobhanighat, Teriratan and Mendibag, city dwellers said.

A primary schoolteacher Sadikur Rahman in Bherthakhola area lamented on Monday, ‘My house went under water for a day last week. Then on Sunday it was again submerged on Sunday. The water receded just to return in today’s downpour.’

Assistant meteorologist Shah Mohammed Sajib Hossain at the Sylhet divisional

meteorological office told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· that 136 millimetre rainfall was recorded within three hours on Monday from 6:00am to 9:00am.

Starting from about midnight past Saturday, 220mm rainfall occurred in the city within only three hours, aggravating the city residents’ sufferings.

Earlier on June 2, low-lying areas of 30 Wards out 42 in the city went under water as the overflowing River Surma caused flash flood, marooning around one lakh citizens.

Refusing to call it a flood or water stagnation, Sylhet City Corporation public relations officer Sajlu Lashkar told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ·, ‘You cannot call it flooding or water-logging since the water moved down from the city within hours after rainfall.’

‘The canals that flow over the city are not capable now to drain out such large amount of water collecting within very short span of time due to heavy raining,’ he added.

The flash flood that hit Sylhet on May 29, caused by a heavy rainfall and onrush of water from the upstream region of India, marooned around 10 lakh people of 850 villages at 12 upazilas out of 13 in the district and 30 Wards out of 42 in the divisional city.

According to the Water Development Board Sylhet office, the River Kushiyara was flowing 56 centimetres above the danger mark at Fenchuganj at 6:00pm Monday.

‘Other rivers, however, have been flowing below the danger marks for five days,’ WDB Sylhet executive engineer Dipak Ranjan Dash told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ·.