Ammon News - Storm surges whipped up by a powerful cyclone moving inland from the Bay of Bengal inundated the Myanmar port city of Sittwe on Saturday, with winds of up to 210 kph (130 mph) ripping away tin roofs and bringing down a communications tower.

Some 400,000 people were evacuated in Myanmar and low-lying neighbouring Bangladesh ahead of Cyclone Mocha making landfall, as authorities and aid agencies scrambled to avert heavy casualties from one of the strongest storms to hit the region in recent years.

Parts of Sittwe, the capital of Myanmar's Rakhine state, were flooded and the ground floors of several buildings were under water, a video posted on social media by a witness in the city showed.

Across Rakhine state and the north west of the country about 6 million people were already in need of humanitarian assistance while 1.2 million have been displaced, according to the U.N. humanitarian office (OCHA).

Communication networks in Rakhine had been disrupted after the cyclone made landfall, the U.N. and local media said.

Reuters