[Shaun]

News Article Here

More than 10,000 people were killed in a devastating cyclone that hit western Burma on Saturday, Foreign Minister Nyan Win has said on state TV.

He said his government was ready to accept international assistance, and aid shipments were now being prepared.

Thousands of survivors of Cyclone Nargis are lacking shelter, drinking water, power and communications, but in many regions help has not yet arrived.

Five regions, in which 24m people live, have been declared disaster zones.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was "very saddened" by the news of the disaster.

He said UN officials were meeting Burmese government representatives to discuss how to respond.

Toll multiplies

Nargis hit the south-east Asian country on Saturday with wind speeds reaching 190km/h (120mph).


Map

In pictures: Burmese clean-up

Earlier on Monday, the death toll was put at just 351, but later reports from state media increased the known death toll more than 10-fold to nearly 4,000.

The toll soared again when Nyan Win spoke at a news conference, also attended by the country's prime minister and information minister, and broadcast on state television.

"According to the latest information, more than 10,000 people were killed," he said.

He said information about the scale of the disaster was still being collected, and warned the toll could yet rise.

"We will welcome help like this from other countries, because our people are in difficulty," Nyan Win said.

The towns of Bogalay and Laputta, in the region of Irrawaddy, are among those locations particularly badly hit, state media reported earlier.

None of the casualty figures have been independently confirmed.

The BBC is not permitted to report from Burma, also known as Myanmar.

Houses 'skeletal'

But reports from the storm-hit region say thousands of buildings have been flattened, power lines downed, trees uprooted, roads blocked and water supplies disrupted.

A Rangoon resident who spoke to relatives in Laputta has told BBC Burmese that 75% to 80% of the town was destroyed.

He said houses along the coast had been reduced to skeletal structures while, further along the coast, 16 villages had been virtually wiped out.

No help had yet reached Laputta, he said.

Pictures on state TV showed security services working to clear roads to allow help through, but in Rangoon and elsewhere there were complaints that the response to the disaster was weak.

"Where are the soldiers and police? They were very quick and aggressive when there were protests in the streets last year," a retired government worker complained to Reuters news agency.

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He was referring to protests led by Buddhist monks last year that were quickly put down.

Earlier, a BBC journalist monitoring the situation in Burma from Bangkok, Soe Win, said the shortages of power and water were particularly critical.

"What [people] are saying is that if the situation continues for another two or three days, that will be really, really difficult for them," he said.

UN disaster response official Richard Horsey confirmed that several hundred thousand people were in need of shelter and clean drinking water.

However, he said it was impossible to tell exactly how many people had been affected because of damage to the roads and telephone systems.

The UN and international aid agencies have sent assessment teams to the worst-hit areas and shipments are being prepared as more offers of help come in.

Aid agencies had brought some emergency supplies into Burma ahead of the cyclone season - but nowhere near enough to cope with the devastation inflicted by Cyclone Nargis.

Thailand has announced it is flying in a transport plane loaded with nine tonnes of food and medicines.

Meanwhile, India says it is dispatching two naval ships carrying food, tents, blankets, clothing, and medicines immediately from Port Blair.

In a statement, the military junta said a referendum on a proposed new national constitution scheduled for next Saturday would still go ahead, insisting Burmese people were "eagerly looking forward to voting".

If the toll is confirmed, Nargis is now the world's deadliest storm since a 1999 cyclone in India killed 10,000 people.

[Shaun]

OK, it's a lot higher than 10k now. Current estimates are at 22,000. With the number expected to rise.