The hilly port city of Chittagong was hardest-hit by the heavy rains. The area is near a military zone and army rescuers pulled out at least 35 bodies from the debris, city official Shahidul Islam said.

Another 15 bodies were pulled from the remnants of a hilly slum on land belonging to Bangladesh Railways in another part of the city, said Nasir Ahmed, a fire brigade officer. Six others died in another hillside slum near a power station, he said, and five members of a family perished when the walls of their brick home collapsed in heavy rain on the Chittagong University campus.

Four others, including a young mother and her toddler, were killed when their house collapsed. A policeman was electrocuted when he stepped on a severed electrical wire.

Emergency workers rescued more than 50 injured people across Chittagong.

Government and charity agencies distributed food and water to about 1,000 people left homeless by the calamity.

Several factories in an industrial belt around the city were also flooded, stopping production and causing extensive damage to machinery, said M.A. Mohiuddin, whose textile mill makes goods for export. The city's telephone, television and radio networks were also interrupted as transmission stations were flooded.

Heavy monsoon rains -- the highest levels recorded in seven years -- also inundated parts of the capital Dhaka and other regions of the country over the weekend.

Bangladesh, a low-lying, deeply impoverished nation of 144 million people, is prone to seasonal floods and cyclones which kill hundreds every year.