Several hundred people, or even thousands, could have died from Cyclone Chido in the French archipelago Mayottein the Indian Ocean, a local French official told Mayotte La 1ere on Sunday.

“I think that there will undoubtedly be several hundred of them, maybe we will reach a thousand, even several thousand (dead)“, local prefect François-Xavier Bieviville told the channel.

When asked about the number of several hundred deaths, French Ministry of the Interior He stated that “it will be difficult to count all the victims” and said that at the moment it was impossible to determine the figure.

Cyclone Chido devastated Mayotte overnight, with winds exceeding 200 km/h and damage to temporary homes, government buildings and a hospital, according to Meteo-France. This is the strongest storm to hit the islands in more than 90 years.

“My thoughts are with our compatriots in Mayotte, who have lived through the most terrible hours and who, for some, have lost everything, they have lost their lives,” the French president said. Emmanuel Macron.

Aerial photographs shared by the French gendarmerie show the remains of hundreds of makeshift houses scattered across the hills of one of the islands of Mayotte, which was a hotbed of illegal immigration from the nearby Comoros islands.

Authorities said it was difficult to determine the exact death toll from the cyclone, which also raised concerns about access to food, water and sanitation.