More than 240 people have been killed after cyclone Nargis tore through Burma, an information ministry official said.Cyclone Nargis, which was packing 190 kilometres per hour winds when it hit, left the streets of the former Burma's main city littered with debris from fallen trees and battered buildings.
Many roofs had been ripped off even sturdy buildings, suggesting damage would be severe in the shanty towns that sit on the outskirts of the sprawling river delta city of five million people.
"According to the latest information we have, altogether 19 people were killed in Rangoon division and then about 222 people killed in Ayeyawaddy division," the official said.
Nargis made landfall around the mouth of the Ayeyawaddy (Irrawaddy) river, about 220 kilometres south-west of Rangoon, before hitting the country's economic hub of Rangoon.
The cyclone ripped down power lines, battered buildings and left uprooted trees and other debris scattered across the streets of Rangoon.
Five central and southern regions and states - Rangoon, Ayeyawaddy, Bago, Mon and Karen - were early declared disaster areas by the military Government.
Police and army have been deployed throughout the worst hits areas to start the clean-up operation.
The information ministry official said that seven empty boats had sunk in the country's main port, while Rangoon's international airport was closed until further notice with flights diverted to the city of Mandalay.
The storm cut most electricity and telecommunications in the nation just a week before a crucial referendum on its new constitution, the first polling in Burma since general elections in 1990.
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