The disaster authority said 7000 people were affected by the devastation caused by the cyclone, which left hundreds of houses, roads, and bridges flooded or destroyed in northern Madagascar.

At least 11 people have been killed and hundreds of homes destroyed after Cyclone Gamane struck the African island nation of Madagascar, officials said.

About 7000 people were affected by the devastation caused by the storm, which reached the northern region of the country on Wednesday, the National Authority for Civil Protection said on Thursday.

The storm was projected to skim the Indian Ocean island, but changed course and hit the island’s Vohemar district in the early hours of Wednesday.

Video images showed torrents of water rushing through villages and people making human chains in waist-deep water while trying to help those trapped in their houses escape the deluge. Numerous routes and bridges were flooded and cut off.

The cyclone moved across the island with an average wind speed of 150km/h (93mph) and heavy rainfall. In some places, winds of 210km/h (130mph) were measured.

The disaster authority said hundreds of houses, roads, and bridges were flooded or destroyed in northern Madagascar.

Six people drowned and five others were killed by collapsing houses or falling trees.

“It’s rare to have a cyclone like this. Its movement is nearly stationary,” General Elack Andriakaja, director general of the BNGRC national disaster management office, said in a statement.

“When the system stops in one place, it devastates all the infrastructure. And that has serious consequences for the population. And significant flooding”, he said.

The full extent of the damage is still not clear, because many villages in the region were cut off from the rest of the country, making access difficult for rescue teams.

Gamane has been reclassified as a tropical storm and was expected to leave the island on Friday afternoon, according to meteorologists.

Located off the coast of southeastern Africa, Madagascar is regularly affected by severe weather. The nation of about 30 million people, which lies in the Indian Ocean, was devastated a year ago by tropical Cyclone Freddy. The storm, which also affected the neighbouring mainland countries of Mozambique and Malawi, left more than 500 people dead.