Searing heat shuts schools for 33 million children in Bangladesh

Searing heat has forced 33 million children out of schools in Bangladesh as temperatures in parts of the country soared past 42ºC.

Schools and colleges will be shut until tomorrow, and this is the second year in a row that authorities have made such a move due to extreme weather.

It follows school closures in the Philippines and India as a persistent heatwave sweeps across Asia.

The Director of Save the Children's Bangladesh says children in Bangladesh are among the poorest in the world, and heat-related school closures should ring alarm bells for us all.

The country's weather authorities issued its fourth heat alert for the month on Thursday.

Low-lying Bangladesh is one of the countries most vulnerable to the impacts of the climate crisis.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a 30- to 45-cm rise in sea level could displace more than 35 million people from coastal districts - about a quarter of the country's total population.

Source: BBC