Cyclone kills 69 in Madagascar, 1000 homeless

Antananarivo, Mar 23: A cyclone that swept across Madagascar last week killed at least 69 people and made tens of thousands homeless in the north of the Indian Ocean island, officials today said.

''I have never seen so much damage,'' Jacky Randimbiarison, executive secretary of the government's disaster management agency, told Reuters.

The agency said it had confirmed 69 deaths, with two other people missing after Cyclone Indlala struck on March 15.

The storm wiped out 3,619 houses, plus dozens of government buildings, schools and bridges. It also destroyed 8,280 hectares of paddy-fields.

In northern Ambanja district, ''a whole mountain has collapsed, burying two villages under thousands of tonnes of rock and killing 20 people including six children in a school,'' Randimbiarison said.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies appealed today for 637,000 dollars to help Madagascar.

Reuters