Five people were killed as pounding rain and high winds from tropical cyclone Felleng battered Madagascar yesterday.
"Four people died after a house collapsed in Antananarivo and one person drowned in Maroantsetra," in the north, Raymond Randriatahina, an official with the national disaster management agency, said.
The category-three tropical cyclone barrelled along the island's east coast, about 200km from land, bringing gusts that reached 250km an hour.
Around the capital, Antananarivo, homes and rice fields were flooded and 650 people were forced to move into tents provided by rescue teams.
UN agencies reported "no major damage in the northeast" of the country, which was hit first by the storm system, which is travelling south.
"Dozens of households in low-lying areas were evacuated last night in Nosy Varika and temporarily sheltered at a school."
As the storm churned the Indian Ocean, the authorities closed coastal schools and those in the capital.
Madagascar is particularly vulnerable to cyclones. In the past decade it has been hit by 45 tropical storms.
Cyclone Giovanna and tropical storm Irina last year killed 112 people and affected 90000.
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