France used ships and military aircraft to rush rescue workers and supplies to its Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on Monday after the island group was battered by its worst cyclone in nearly a century.

Emergency workers raced on Monday to find survivors and restore services to the French overseas territory of Mayotte, where hundreds or even thousands are feared dead from the worst cyclone to hit the Indian Ocean islands in nearly a century.

Officials fear hundreds of people could be dead as a result of the cyclone, which ravaged France’s poorest department.