Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated from coastal areas in Bangladesh ahead of a cyclonic storm which is due to hit coastal areas in the next 24 hours.

Cyclone Mahasen will bring winds of up to 88 kilometres an hour and a storm surge of up to 2 metres to low lying coastal areas.

People living in the path of the storm are being urgently evacuated to cyclone shelters.

The United Nations (UN) has said the storm poses a risk to more than 8 million people along the coasts in Bangladesh and Burma.

About 140,000 refugees from religious violence in Burma living in tented accommodation along the coast are believed to be particularly at risk from Mahasen. Likewise millions of people living on the coast of Bangladesh have been warned they are potentially at risk.

A government official in Burma also known as Myanmar said "There are still people living in temporary tents [along the coast]. Now we are trying to move as many of those as we can to the stronger permanent shelters."

He added that the permanent shelters would not have sufficient space to house all displaced people and some people would have to stay with relatives or in school buildings.

Around 30 million of Bangladesh population of 150 million live along the coast.

Image: NOAA