Indian officials searching for victims of the cyclone in the western state of Gujarat say more than two-hundred people were killed when it struck on Tuesday.

The BBC South Asia correspondent says the storm struck coastal towns like a slegehammer and its full impact is only now becoming clear.

Delayed reports reaching the rescue control centre in the Gujarat capital indicate that many of the dead were salt workers near the town of Kandla who were caught by a tidal wave when it swept inshore.

The cyclone was the worst to affect the Arabian Sea coast of India for more than a quarter of a century.