DHAKA (AFP) -- Hundreds of people died and tens of thousands were left homeless after a powerful cyclone whipped up huge waves, severe winds and unleashed torrential rains in Bangladesh, officials said Friday.

The eye of cyclone Sidr, shown in satellite images as a huge swirling white mass racing up the Bay of Bengal, crashed into the coast of the impoverished country Thursday night before sweeping north over the capital Dhaka.
Wind speeds of 220-240 kilometers (140-155 miles) an hour were recorded in what officials described as one of the biggest storms to hit the low-lying and disaster-prone nation in years.
""The death toll has risen to 243. We expect the number will rise further,"" said Nahid Sultana, of the control room at the ministry of relief and disaster management.
Another ministry official, Mohammad Ayub Mia, said the toll did not include deaths from two districts known to have been worst hit -- southern Barguna and Jhalokati -- because of communication problems.
""We are expecting many dead bodies will be found there,"" he told reporters, as the state-run BSS news agency said it expected the toll to shoot up to around 300.
Most deaths were caused by trees crushing flimsy homes made from bamboo and tin. In Madaripur district between Dhaka and the southwest coast, an AFP reporter saw devastated villages, one after the other.
A local businessman in the southwest, Mollik Tariqur Rahman, told AFP that 80 percent of the homes in his village had been leveled.
""I cannot describe how devastating it was. It was like doomsday, the most frightening five hours of my life. I thought I would never see my family again,"" he said.
A navy spokesman said five ships had been dispatched with supplies of food, medicine and relief materials.
Rescue workers, however, had yet to reach many remote areas, and telephone lines and power supplies were also cut.
""The electricity went off across the entire country. We are trying to restore it, but it will take until the evening,"" said Mohammad Iqbal Hossen of Bangladesh's energy ministry.
Hundreds of thousands of people spent the night bunkered down in a network of special shelters set up by the government to avoid the mass casualties of previous disasters.
Experts described Sidr as similar in strength to the 1991 storm that triggered a tidal wave, killing an estimated 138,000 people. Another cyclone in 1970 killed up to half a million people.
The head of the Bangladeshi meteorological department, Samarendra Karmakar, said he was optimistic the shelters as well as an evacuation program would spare the country mass casualties.
""It is not less severe than the 1991 cyclone, in some places it is more severe. But we are expecting less casualties this time because the government took early measures. We alerted people to be evacuated early,"" he said.