Death toll tops 15,000 in Myanmar cyclone: state media

Yangon (ANTARA News) - More than 15,000 people have died in Myanmar after a cyclone hit the country last weekend, including 10,000 people in a single town, a state newspaper said Tuesday in the latest update on casualties.

The official New Light of Myanmar newspaper said that the town of Bogalay, located in the heart of the Irrawaddy river delta where the storm swept ashore, had suffered 10,000 deaths.

The cyclone pounded the delta and then tore through Myanmar's main city of Yangon, leaving a total of 15,000 dead across the country, the paper was quoted by AFP as saying.

The storm devastated Myanmar's main rice-growing region, which is home to about 24 million people, nearly half the country's population. (*) end