Dhaka, March 24 (DPA) Hailstorms sweeping southern Bangladesh Saturday left at least 10 people dead and nearly 300 injured, officials said.

The storms, reaching wind velocities of more than 100 km per hour, wrecked mud walled homes, uprooted trees and devastated rice terraces on the offshore lush islands of Lalmohan and Char Borhanuddin.

The dead include four children, who were crushed under fallen trees in the worst battered Lalmohan Island, local officer Kamrul Hasan said.

"More than 3,500 families have become homeless in Spring's first storms this year," Hasan said.