Cyclone Gezani made landfall on Tuesday at Madagascar's eastern coastal city Toamasina, bringing winds that reached 250 kilometres (155 miles) per hour.

Updating its tolls as assessments progressed, the National Office for Risk and Disaster Management (BNRGC) said it had recorded 38 deaths, while six people remained missing and at least 374 were injured.

More than 12,000 people were displaced, it said.

Madagascar's new leader, Colonel Michael Randrianirina, called for "international solidarity", saying on Wednesday the cyclone had "ravaged up to 75 percent of Toamasina and surrounds".

AFP images showed the battered city of 400,000 people littered with trees felled by strong winds and roofs blown off buildings.

- Homes destroyed -

Residents dug through piles of debris, planks and corrugated metal to repair their makeshift homes.

More than 18,000 homes were destroyed in the cyclone, according to the BNRGC, with over 50,000 damaged or flooded.

The main road linking the city to the capital, Antananarivo, was cut off in several places, "blocking humanitarian convoys", it said, while telecommunications were unstable.

The storm also caused major destruction in the Atsinanana region surrounding Toamasina, the disaster authority said, adding that assessments were still underway.

France announced the dispatch of food aid and rescue teams from its Reunion Island, about 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) away.

Thousands of people had been forced to leave their homes, said the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM), describing "widespread destruction and disruption".

The CMRS cyclone forecaster on Reunion said Tuesday that Toamasina had been "directly hit by the most intense part" of the storm.

The cyclone's landfall was likely one of the strongest recorded in the region during the satellite era, rivalling Geralda in February 1994, it said. That storm left at least 200 dead and affected half a million more.

Gezani weakened after landfall but continued to sweep across the island as a tropical storm until late Wednesday.

It was forecast to return to cyclone status as it reaches the Mozambique Channel, according to the CMRS, and could from Friday evening strike southern Mozambique.

Mozambican authorities issued warnings Thursday about the approaching storm, saying it could cause violent winds and rough seas of 10-metre waves and urging people to leave the area of expected impact.

The southern African country has already faced devastating flooding from seasonal rainfall, with nearly 140 lives lost since October 1, according to the National Disasters Management Institute.

Cyclone season in the southwest Indian Ocean typically lasts from November to April and sees around a dozen storms each year.