Hundreds feared dead on Mayotte after Cyclone Chido
Al Jazeera
Several hundred people may have been killed when the most powerful cyclone in nearly a century hit the French Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte, according to a senior local French official.
“I think there will certainly be several hundreds, maybe we will reach a thousand, even several thousands,” prefect Francois-Xavier Bieuville said on the local media channel Mayotte La 1ere on Sunday.
The French Ministry of Interior said “it will be difficult to account for all victims” and a figure could not be determined at this stage.
Cyclone Chido hit Mayotte overnight on Saturday, Meteo-France, the weather agency, said, with winds of more than 200km/h (124mph), damaging housing, government buildings and a hospital. The forecaster said it was the strongest storm in more than 90 years to hit the islands.
“Honestly, what we are experiencing is a tragedy, you feel like you are in the aftermath of a nuclear war … I saw an entire neighbourhood disappear,” Mohamed Ishmael, a resident of Mayotte’s capital Mamoudzou, told the Reuters news agency by phone.
