Dhaka, June 11 (Reuters): Floods and mudslides have killed nearly 100 people in Bangladesh, mostly in the port city of Chittagong where dozens of hillside homes were buried after monsoon rains, officials and rescuers said today.

At least 84 people died in the city, including entire families, where hillside homes were swept away and many other houses collapsed in the worst such disaster in decades.

Much of the city of nearly 5 million people, Bangladesh’s commercial capital, was flooded by waist to chest-high water, closing down businesses, offices and transport, city officials and witnesses said.

Rescuers including troops, firefighters, police and volunteers searched for people reported missing, but their efforts were hampered by flooded roads and no electricIty after nightfall.

“It looks like we are living in a ghost city,” one rescuer said. “Never before in my life I confronted such a calamity,” said another. The dead included five members of one family.

City officials said they were trying to supply dry or cooked food to stranded families, especially children.

Thunderstorms killed 15 people elsewhere in the country, including five in western Jhenaidah district alone, local officials told reporters.