According to Ambdilwahedou Soumaila, the mayor of Mamoudzou, the capital of Mayotte, nine people were treated in critical condition and 246 in less severe condition at the Mayotte Hospital Center, Xinhua news agency reported.
"The roads are completely cut, and it is almost impossible to pass ... We will need water and food, and they will have to be transported," he told local media.
In a statement, the prefect of Reunion, where most of the reinforcements are being coordinated, said that "other resources will follow during the week, which could amount to a total of 700 civil security personnel."
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau is scheduled to visit Mayotte this evening. Following an interministerial crisis meeting, he said it "will probably take days" to "refine" the exact human toll.
Located in the northern Mozambique Channel of the Indian Ocean, Mayotte is an overseas department and region and single territorial collectivity of France. It lies off the southeastern coast of Africa between northwestern Madagascar and northeastern Mozambique.
--IANS
