Nearly 1,000 people are feared to be dead after Cyclone Chido hit the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte.

Entire settlements were flattened when the cyclone, the most powerful to hit in half a century, ripped through the archipelago on Saturday, tearing houses apart, with winds of more than 124mph.

Francois-Xavier Bieuville, a senior Mayotte official, told local TV: “I think there are some several hundred dead, maybe we’ll get close to a thousand, even thousands... given the violence of this event.”

However, he said it was currently “extremely difficult” to get an exact number.