Cyclone kills 111 on ferry - but two survive
A ferry which disappeared in a cyclone off Madagascar sank with all but two of its 113 passengers and crew trapped inside.
The survivors – a man and woman from Comoros – told officials at the north-western port of Mahajanga that the ship capsized on Sunday evening in violent seas. They were washed ashore in Madagascar the following day on a makeshift raft.
The drownings brought the death toll from Cyclone Gafilo to 154.
The Samson, a 150-foot ferry, left the Comoros islands capital of Moroni on Saturday for a regular crossing to Madagascar.
The 92 passengers and 21 crew had been feared dead since Monday, when they failed to turn up at Mahajanga. They included two French nationals, 31 Madagascans and 80 Comorians.
“There is no possibility of finding survivors,” said Nailani Nakchamy, a Comorian government official.
At least 43 others were killed and thousands displaced by the cyclone, which whipped through towns and fields with winds of 146mph.
More than 80,000 people have been cut off from the outside world since the cyclone ripped through northern Madagascar on Sunday, destroying bridges, toppling trees and reducing tarred roads to gravel. Telephone and power lines were also downed in the storm.
Humanitarian workers don’t know how much food or water they have left.
Gafilo then swept out to sea before doubling back and taking a second hit at the Indian Ocean island near the south-western town of Morombe on Wednesday. By Thursday, it had weakened to a tropical storm as it moved towards the south-eastern coast.
