The flowering of bamboo forests for the first time in 50 years in areas along the border with India has led to a so-called 'rat flood' - rodents which have multiplied in number by feeding on bamboo blossoms, rice stalks and vegetables.

'The rat invasion has turned hilly plantation areas into scorched earth,' Mr Prosenjit Chakma, a senior aid official with the United Nations Development Programme said after a visit to the Chittagong Hills Tracts.

'A localised famine is going on in the worst affected areas like Sajek, Farua and Bilaichhari,' he said on Saturday.

Bamboo forests first began blossoming last year in Lusai Hills in the neighbouring Indian state of Mizoram, prompting the authorities there to declare it a disaster zone after rats went on to eat food stocks.

The problem soon spread to nearby remote border villages in Bangladesh's hill districts and now stretches more than 300km. The region has already been racked by a two-decade ethnic insurgency over demands for autonomy which has claimed more than 2,500 lives.

Aid workers said the influx of rodents has affected 150,000 people in three of the districts. 'Whatever they try to grow is devoured within hours by hundreds of thousands of rats,' said Mr Auronendo Tripura, a spokesman for the Rangamati Hill Council which covers one of the three districts.

'In Rangamati alone, we believe up to 3,500 families face starvation because of the rat attack. All their crops have been damaged and their food stocks have run out,' he said.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE