Bangladesh and eastern India on cyclone alert

DHAKA (Reuters) - Thousands of people fled their homes along Bangladesh's southern coast, as volunteers with loudspeakers went from village to village warning that a severe cyclone was approaching from the Bay of Bengal.

"Where shall I go?" said a woman in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh's main sea resort, holding her child in one hand and the rope of a cattle in the other, as they came out before dark fell.

Bangladesh and eastern India went on cyclone alert on Wednesday and ships were turned back to port with the storm expected to make landfall in the next two days.

The Bangladesh Meteorological Department said the cyclone with winds of around 185 km per hour was some 850 km off the coast as of 0300 GMT on Wednesday.

He said the storm was expected to hit Vishakapatnam on the eastern Indian coast as well as Sittewe in Myanmar.

The British storm tracking system -- Tropical Storm Risk -- has described the storm as category 4, with windspeeds of up to 250 km per hour.

It was likely to weaken to a category 3 storm by Thursday, losing some speed and ferocity, the TSR said in its latest forecast.

But meteorology officials in Bangladesh said the cyclone could still be very devastating.

Nearly 10 million Bangladeshis live in vulnerable points along the coast, but there are storm shelters for only half a million people, a disaster management official said.