One person was killed on Mauritius and nine hurt in the French Indian Ocean department of Réunion when a tropical cyclone brushed the island at the weekend.
The victims had ignored official bans on going out while Cyclone Gamede was in the vicinity.
On Mauritius, a man of 22 was swept away by high waves on Saturday about 10km south of the capital, Port Louis. Local MP Maurice Allet said he the man slipped off a rock that he and two companions had climbed.
On Réunion, nine people were injured, one seriously, when they defied a ban on driving.
In the south of the island, a 520m-long bridge was swept away and about 100 000 people were deprived of electricity, officials said.
The mayor of the town of Saint Louis, Cyrille Hamilcaro, said the collapse of the bridge over the Saint Etienne river was a disaster that would cause serious disruption to the local economy.
Farmers’ leader Jean-Yves Minatchy said torrential rain and wind reaching a record 205km/h had also caused heavy damage to crops, especially sugar cane and bananas.
As Gamede moved away north-westward, authorities said a red alert forbidding movement would be lifted early on Monday but schools would remain closed.
Mozambican authorities were keeping an eye on the cyclone to see whether it would follow the same route as Cyclone Favio, which killed at least 10 people along the Mozambican coast this week and caused heavy damages in the town of Vilankulo. — Sapa-AFP