Cyclone wipes out at least 15,000 people in Burma

THE cyclone and storm surge that tore through Burma at the weekend has killed at least 15,000 people and left 30,000 missing, officials said today.

And they warned the toll could rise in low-lying, remote villages.

Foreign Minister Nyan Win said 10,000 people had died in one town – Bogalay in the low-lying Irrawaddy delta, the area hardest hit when Cyclone Nargis struck on Saturday.

"The losses have been much greater than we anticipated," he said.

The cyclone is the worst to hit Asia since 1991, when 143,000 people died in Bangladesh.

And United Nations aid officials said several hundred thousand people had been left homeless by the 120 mph winds and 12 foot storm surge.

The scale of the disaster in the military-ruled southeast Asian nation drew a rare acceptance of outside help from the diplomatically isolated generals, who spurned such approaches in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

A military transport plane was scheduled to land in Rangoon later today with emergency aid from Thailand, while other countries and organisations said they were prepared to follow.

The United States said it also stood ready.