Bangladeshis struggle to protect town from river

DHAKA (Reuters) - Hundreds of people including soldiers and police were struggling to stop a town being washed away by the choppy Jamuna river in Bangladesh over the last two days, officials said on Saturday.

Boulders, concrete blocks, brick slabs and sand bags were being dropped by volunteers, government staff and troops along a partially eroded river bank at Sirajganj district town 160 km (100 miles) northwest of the capital Dhaka.

Erosion at the edge of the town of some 200,000 people slowed but was not checked on Saturday, officials said, a day after 200 metres of the bank was washed away after rains.

"Had the river breached the eroded bank a disaster would have gulped us," said Abdul Kuddush, a local newspaper reporter.

Erosions in the impoverished riverine country displace some 50,000 people a year, officials said.