Amphan cyclone causes havoc in India and Bangladesh

 The eastern Indian city of Kolkata has been devastated by a powerful cyclone which has killed at least 84 people across India and Bangladesh.

Amphan made landfall on Wednesday, lashing coastal areas with ferocious wind and rain. The storm is weakening as it moves north into Bhutan.

Thousands of trees were uprooted in the gales, electricity and telephone lines brought down and houses flattened.

Many of Kolkata's roads are flooded and its 14 million people without power.

The storm is the first super cyclone to form in the Bay of Bengal since 1999. Though its winds had weakened by the time it struck, it was still classified as a very severe cyclone.

Coronavirus restrictions have been hindering emergency and relief efforts. Covid-19 and social-distancing measures made mass evacuations more difficult, with shelters unable to be used to full capacity.

What's the latest on the cyclone?

Amphan began hitting the Sundarbans, a mangrove area around the India-Bangladesh border home to four million people on Wednesday afternoon, before carving north and north-eastwards towards Kolkata, a historic city that was the capital of the British Raj and widely known as Calcutta.

Parts of West Bengal and Orissa (also known as Odisha) states in India, and areas in south-west Bangladesh, bore the brunt, with winds gusting up to 185km/h (115mph).

At least 72 people have died in India's West Bengal state, and 12 deaths have been confirmed in Bangladesh.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said the devastation in Kolkata, the state capital, was "a bigger disaster than Covid-19".

"Area after area has been ruined," Ms Banerjee was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India news agency. "I have experienced a war-like situation today."

"Thank God, we are safe," said one resident, who shared footage of tiled roofs being peeled off by the force of the wind and blown away.

Local news networks showed uprooted traffic lights in flooded streets, as well as river jetties torn apart and vehicles crushed under fallen trees.

Kajal Basu, who lives on the 12th floor of a high-rise building in the city, wrote on Facebook after the storm began: "It is like the vault of hell outside."

The apartment building seemed to be "swaying from side to side, mimicking an earthquake", he said. 

Image caption Parts of Kolkata airport are submerged after the storm

Most people were at home when the storm struck. Kolkata and the rest of India is in lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic.