Officials fear hundreds of people could be dead as a result of the cyclone, which ravaged France’s poorest department.

France is rushing help by ship and military aircraft to its poor overseas territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean that has been shattered by its worst storm in nearly a century.

French authorities said more than 800 more personnel were expected to arrive in the coming days as rescuers comb through the devastation caused by Chido when it hit the densely populated archipelago of around 300,