Cyclone "Shido" has hit Mozambique and killed at least three people in the north of the country, bringing strong winds and heavy rains. Several buildings have been destroyed, reports Agence France-Presse, quoted by BTA.
The cyclone hit the coastal provinces of Nampula and Cabo Delgado early yesterday, damaging buildings and cutting off power in some areas. Two people died in the city of Pemba in Cabo Delgado province and a three-year-old child was swept away by the cyclone in Nampula, according to initial preliminary data published by Mozambique's National Institute of Meteorology.
More than 2,800 people have been sheltered in Pemba after the cyclone forced them to flee their homes, according to the same source. Earlier on Wednesday, the institute said the cyclone was expected to bring thunderstorms and strong winds with gusts of up to 260 km/h in some parts of the provinces.
Rainfall in 24 hours was expected to exceed 250 millimeters.
Before reaching Mozambique, cyclone "Shido" caused chaos in the French territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean, AFP recalls.
"Shido" has caused "certainly the deaths of several hundred, and perhaps several thousand" people on the island of Mayotte, the prefect of this overseas department of France said today. "I believe there will certainly be several hundred, and perhaps close to a thousand and even several thousand" deaths, François-Xavier Bioville told the territory's public television. It will be very difficult to establish a final death toll, given that according to Muslim tradition, deeply rooted in the shantytowns that were completely destroyed, the dead must be buried within 24 hours, he explained.
The task of counting is further complicated by the large number of illegal immigrants, more than 100,000 according to the Interior Ministry, out of an official population of 320,000.
According to preliminary data, the extremely powerful tropical cyclone has killed at least 14 people on the small French archipelago in the Indian Ocean, AFP reported earlier, citing a security source.
The French Interior Ministry warned that it would be very difficult to determine the number of victims. The authorities fear that "the reckoning will be heavy", as the resigned French Interior Minister Bruno Retayo warned last night.
The situation in the poorest French department after the "Shido" cyclone can be described as apocalyptic. Humanitarian shipments delivered by air began to arrive there today.