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Eight killed after landslide hits girls' school in Bangladesh

Tiffanie Turnbull
AFP via Getty Images A large group of volunteers and aid workers stand in deep mud during heavy rain, working together at the site of a landslide by a school at a refugee camp in Cox's BazarAFP via Getty Images
A school at a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar was hit by the landslide

Seven students and a teacher have been killed in Bangladesh after a landslide hit a girls' school inside a refugee camp.

The Islamic study centre in the coastal city of Cox's Bazar was buried by mud and debris on Wednesday afternoon, sparking frantic search and rescue efforts. It is unclear how many people were inside the school.

The country has been battered by monsoon rains since Sunday, with several deadly landslides reported in Cox's Bazar.

More than one million Rohingya people live there in what is the world's largest refugee settlement, having fled a deadly military crackdown in Myanmar.

Rescuers pulled 13 people from the mud that engulfed their school hut, eight of whom died, the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Mohammed Mizanur Rahman said.

"Some of them are seven, eight, 11 or 12 years old," Panna Akhter, a local district officer, told BBC Bangla.

The other five children were taken to hospital for treatment.

Rohingya Khobor A large crowd gathers around a muddy site as people work by hand to try to rescue people from under the mudRohingya Khobor
Crowds gathered at the school to pull out students who had become submerged

Earlier, officials said other landslides had killed at least eight Rohingya refugees, including five children, since Sunday.

Thousands of Rohingya, one of Myanmar's many ethnic minorities, were killed and more than 700,000 fled to neighbouring Bangladesh during an army crackdown in Myanmar in 2017.

The group, which is primarily Muslim, are denied citizenship by the government of Myanmar, a Buddhist-majority country.

Many face poor living conditions in Bangladesh, living in makeshift homes of tarpaulin and bamboo on steep hillsides.

More rain is forecast for the coming days, with authorities issuing warnings for more landslides and floods, and evacuating families in high risk areas.