"The boat most probably sank," Comoran Transport Minister Houmed Msaidie told AFP in Moroni, adding an official announcement would be made shortly.

He said the sinking had been reported by two survivors from the ferry, and that a body had also been found.

"We still have no news of the Samson ferry, with which we lost contact Sunday evening," the head of the Madagascar's rescue service, Lucille Randrianarivelo, said earlier.

Madagascar officials said the death toll from cyclone Gafilo, which was weakening Wednesday after battering the island since Sunday, had risen to 32, with 42 people still missing, 11 injured and thousands left homeless.

"The latest death toll issued at 1500 GMT is 32 dead, 42 missing, 11 injured and 6,088 homeless," Farah Rasoarimamonjy, an official at island's national rescue council, told AFP.

The Samson left the Comoros port of Mutsamudu bound for the northwest Madagascar port of Mahajanga where it was due to dock late Sunday, as Gafilo ripped across the region with winds gusting at up to 180 kilometers per hour (110 mph).

But it never arrived. A Comoran man told police in Mahajanga on Wednesday that he and a woman with him had escaped from the ferry as it was sinking.

"He added that the Samson ferry had sunk between Anjouan and Mahajanga at 2:00 in the morning (2300 GMT) during the night of Sunday to Monday," Mahajanga's police commissioner Harivony Rakotomalala told AFP.

"He said a woman called Fatima was also on board his life boat and that she was in the village called Apache Marine some 25 kilometres from Mahajanga and could not accompany him because she was too tired," he added.

"Ibrahim Abdou said that a third person had tried to get into the boat, but did not succeed. He said there were no other lifeboats on board."

A harbourmaster also went to interview two men whom a fisherman from a village some 30 kilometres (24 miles) north of Mahajanga, said he had sheltered after they escaped from the sinking ship.

On Wednesday a French army Transall plane, carrying life-rafts and rescue equipment, flew from its base in Reunion to join the search but had "found nothing so far", the French chief of staff said in Paris.

About 100 relatives held an anxious vigil outside the Samson's offices in the Comoros capital Moroni, seeking news of their loved ones.

"I don't know what to say as we have had no news, just rumours which are not very reassuring," said Zahara Abdou whose 26-year-old daughter Zalfata Amada had boarded the ferry for a holiday in Madagascar.

"We just want some information to know if our loved ones are alive or dead," said Ali Mze whose wife and brother-in-law were on the Samson, as his wife had been sick and went to Madagascar to seek treatment.

"That's where the doctors are. We have no choice but to send our sick there," he said.

Cyclone Gafilo had wheeled around early Wednesday to lash Madagascar again, this time hitting the south of the island, but it weakened as it travelled across the island and had not caused much damage.

The island's weather services later downgraded the cyclone to a tropical storm and it was due to blow out to sea off the eastern coast later in the day.

A police official in the southern town of Ihosy said many of the rice paddies had been completely flooded and there were still heavy winds and rains. "But the houses and trees have not suffered," added Zafitia Randrianolison.

TERRA.WIRE