40,000 Believed Dead in Cyclone

DHAKA, Bangladesh — The head of Bangladesh’s Red Cross estimated today that 40,000 people died in last week’s cyclone--a figure far higher than the official toll so far of 1,515.

Calling 40,000 dead “a reasonable estimate,” Ali Hassan Quoreshi said he based the figure on reports from the hardest-hit islands. “It could be that the (government) officials on the island are giving wrong figures deliberately,” he said, adding that the high toll could serve to discredit them because they did not plan a cyclone warning properly.