The army has been called out to help the police with relief and rescue work amid fears of a rising death toll as scores of people remain missing.

The cyclone, packing speeds of up to 130 kilometres (81 miles) per hour, destroyed about 2,000 houses in eight villages.

"At least four of the eight villages were completely flattened," Additional District Magistrate of Dhubri, Azad Ali Sheikh told AFP by telephone.

Most casualties were in Dhubri district, bordering Bangladesh, some 300 kilometres (185 miles) from the state capital Guwahati.

More than 1,500 people were injured in Dhubri.

At least five other districts including Sonitpur, Nagaon and Hailakandi were also hit.

Most fatalities occurred when families were buried under mounds of rubble after the storm, accompanied by fierce winds, brought their houses down on top of them.

Tin sheeting used as roofing was sent flying and added to the casualties.

"The wind speed was so high that some people who came out of the houses were literally blown away," P.C. Bordoloi, the police chief of Dhubri, told AFP by phone.

The injured were being taken to hospitals, Bordoloi said.

"A middle-aged woman died after a tin sheet fell on her, slashing her upper portion into two pieces," police official J. Islam told AFP by telephone from Mancachar.

"The scene was chaotic with people looking for their family members after the cyclone stopped," he said.

The storm badly damaged houses, crops, trees and electric power lines.

Officials said they were not prepared for such a disaster and acknowledged that relief and rescue work had been slow to get off the ground.

"The entire area was plunged into darkness making it even more difficult. The roads to to the villages were filled with mud and slush," police official N. Dutta told AFP by telephone.

"It was a massacre ... Small children separated from their parents were crying inconsolably."

Roads were blocked by big trees uprooted by the storm.

Assam health minister Bhumidhar Burman told AFP: "Many of the injured were brought to the hospitals with broken limbs, head injuries and cuts -- besides shock and trauma."

Hundreds of police and paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF) personnel were helping.

Assam has been lashed by heavy rains and winds with speeds between 60 and 70 kilometres (37 and 42 miles) per hour for the past 10 days, causing extensive damage.

The meteorological office warned Wednesday that more thunderstorms with higher windspeeds were expected in the next couple of days.

In adjoining Bangladesh, a tropical storm wreaked havoc in Dhaka, damaging five parked aircraft belonging to the national airline Biman, officials said Wednesday.

The metereological department said the storm was a "normal tropical" storm with winds of up to 116 kilometres (72 miles) per hour.

SPACE.WIRE